


Clone Justice

by Ecarden



Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: AAR - Freeform, Conflict, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 23:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 40,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29500875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ecarden/pseuds/Ecarden
Summary: Superboy isn't the only clone on this team. But I'm sure the addition of a de-aged, cloned and transplanted Jack O'Neill won't change anything. Right?
Comments: 37
Kudos: 13





	1. Bad Ideas

Captain Atom sat across the desk from Jesse Nelson. The older woman wasn’t military, but her position within the Department of Defense was quite high. It had to be, for her job as handler of the crazy. Which also made her his official point of contact with the DOD and unofficial therapist. Given her usually unflappable nature, it said something about the situation that she was wearing a shocked expression and her mouth was hanging open.

“You’re going to catch flies.”

Her mouth snapped shut, but she ignored the feeble attempt at humor. “The Justice League decided to put together a covert team to investigate matters off the books…entirely made up of children?”

“I actually have no idea how old any of them are, but—”

“I mean, as far as deniability goes that’s great. Anyone would believe a bunch of kids would run off and do something crazy without orders. At least anyone with kids. But as far as efficiency, not to mention morality goes...What the hell are they thinking?”

Atom shrugged. “Mostly that their sidekicks wanted this. Usual growing-pains type stuff. Plus, they do actually have skills and we definitely need additional intelligence gathering capability. Relying entirely on what Batman can gather in between his day job and his night job is simply not effective.”

“You know there are laws against using child soldiers.”

“They’re hardly soldiers. And if they were, it’s as much a problem if they’re punching people in the face with their mentors as without them.” He could see her preparing to respond and held up a hand. “I agree with you. I almost lost my temper when Batman asked if I had anyone to recommend for this team. I’m doing my best to get them support and therapy. Lots of therapy.”

He saw an unhealthy spark in her eye. “Anyone to recommend?”

Desperately shaking his head, he tried to cut off the idea before it could take root. “No way. They’re not going to take an adult. So unless you know a special forces captain who can pass for fifteen, there’s no way.”

“Nooo…” he relaxed. Too soon. “Not a captain.”

* * *

Colonel Jack “Jon” O’Neill (ret) twisted slightly. The black body-armor was tight, but didn’t bind. “This is going to need to be adjusted. I’m going to get quite a bit taller and more muscular.”

The engineer doing the fitting was unimpressed by this prediction, despite its absolute honesty. Her look was quite withering. He ignored that with the ease of long years of experience playing dumb.

“Can this be painted?” he asked tapping the surprisingly soft material.

That got some confusion. “Why would you want to do that?”

“As has been said, by a famous author you’ve never heard of,” he paused for a moment, mourning an entire universe which lacked a Terry Pratchett, then continued, “black is only really a sensible camouflage in a dark cellar at midnight. So, can I paint it depending on where we’re going?”

“Sure…” she now looked at him like he was crazy. He was used to that as well. “Or you could use the camo overlays in the case.”

He glanced down and shrugged. “Oh. Okay.”

Assistant Deputy Director Nelson’s aide bustled in at that point to deliver another round of briefing materials for Jack. Despite his best efforts, this DOD was just as opposed to video briefings as the old one, so it was a gigantic stack of paper.

All on kid superheroes. Okay, not all. There was also a big stack on the adult superheroes.

Still. Superheroes. If Charlie knew he was working with—

His mind screeched sideways away from that well worn rut and he buried himself in paperwork as the engineer finished working on the suit fitting. “You’ll have to come back for major adjustments, but this should work. I’ve got the ‘zat’ set up to your right bracer. Heads up, physical laws are different here. It’ll deliver a less-lethal shock every time. No second-shot kills and definitely no vaporization.”

“Understood,” and he did understand. It was also why the arrangement between the realities did not include Superman coming to the original earth’s defense. Back home the man was just another person.

“The other bracer,” she fit it over the armor on his forearm, “is based on the,” a glance at the note, “’kull warrior’ weapon. It will fire a large number of plasma bolts all at once. Only fire it at something you want to kill, or someone with a very high level of superhuman toughness and make sure your gloves are on, or you’ll burn your hand very badly.”

“Ya, sure, you betcha. And the reason I can’t just have a gun? Or many guns?”

“It’s a hero thing,” the aide explained.

“Which also explains the mask, right?”

“Right.”

He held up the domino mask. “Does it come with glue, or a little string, or do I just have to scrunch my face up real hard to hold it in place?”

The engineer and the aide looked at each other. He was used to that too.

“I…actually don’t know how it stays on,” the aide admitted. “But they all—”

“And you do know that it’s quite literally impossible for anyone in this universe to recognize me?”

That one she did have an answer for. “Which will only be true until you begin showing your face around.”

“Right, but this will fall off. If I have to wear a mask, is there something wrong with a balaclava? Or a gas mask? At least that would be sort of useful.” He recognized a moment too late that his traditional complaining was leading him towards a situation where he had to wear a gas mask in the field. He hated wearing a gas mask.

Before he could move along, the engineer piped up, volunteering to get him a gas mask.

“What about explosives? Grenades? C4?”

“Flashbangs and smoke grenades.”

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud. Do I at least get a knife? Or am I stuck trying to use a spork?”

“You can have a knife.”

“That’s something anyway.”

The engineer came back with a gas mask. It was better than the one’s he’d used in the past. Which meant it only really sucked, instead of _really_ sucking. She clearly knew that too as she was giving him a nasty smile. In his defense, he’d been no more than standardly obnoxious/charming to her, but it came off rather differently without his old body and then his new one had had a rather unfortunate physical reaction to her proximity. She was clearly choosing to be amused by it, but being fifteen again _**really** _sucked.


	2. Introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing Jon to Captain Atom, Superboy and Megan. It goes great!

Jon spread his arms wide and hopped to his feet. The broad grin on his face didn’t even attempt to conceal the wicked amusement in his eyes. “Grandpa!”

Captain Atom stared for a long moment, then ran his hand over his face and turned to look at Jesse. “Really?”

She shoved a thin file across her desk to him and waved him into the other chair. “Really.”

Jon stood there for a long moment, arms still extended for the hug that apparently wasn’t coming. When Captain Atom took his seat, Jon, pouting, did likewise. The superhero flicked through the thin file quickly. Not quickly enough to keep Jon from getting bored, but quickly enough to keep him from doing anything about it besides beginning to juggle a few random objects off of Jesse’s nearest shelf. Their contact ignored them both, getting back to her own work while Captain Atom read.

“Colonel?” he asked, glancing at Jesse.

She nodded, without looking away from her computer screen. “Yes?” Jon asked, slowly putting down the objects.

“Another world?” he asked as he kept reading.

“Classified,” Jesse answered.

“Another universe,” Jon said at the same time.

“Okaaaaay,” he drew out the word. “Is he going to be able to keep up?”

Jesse pulled out a small viewer and passed it over. “We decided to test his new field gear and abilities. We put him up against a group of trainee rangers to start with.”

The video wasn’t very good, but the explosions and screams of confusion coming from within the facility the squad of soldiers was trying to defend were quite clear.

“Then we tried him against actual rangers.”

This time the video was even worse as people moved through some forest. For a time it seemed nothing was happening, then there was an explosion of sound and smoke as a black and green clad figure ambushed them, despite their best efforts. Four went down quickly, but that shouldn’t have been everyone. There should have been return fire from the rearguard. He glanced over at Jon, who’d assumed an expression of confusion which had to be fake.

Jesse answered the unspoken question. “He took out the rearguard first. Hand-to-hand. Nice and quiet.”

“More knife-to-knife, but thank you, ma’am,” Jon said with a smirk.

“No killing on this team,” Captain Atom said.

“Unless absolutely necessary, yeah, yeah,” Jon waved a hand.

Captain Atom shot to his feet, glaring down at the shorter teenager. “No. No killing at all. Under any circumstances. The Justice League is very strict about that. Do you understand?”

There was a moment of frozen silence as Jon watched Jesse and she stared back at him, clearly leaving this in his hands. Jon stood up and was forced to tilt his head back to meet the other man’s gaze. “Captain,” his voice chilled right down as all the amusement drained out of it and the superhero suddenly found himself glaring down at a superior officer. “I’ll obey your rules of engagement. Until the situation requires that I do otherwise to keep the _children_ you are sending on missions alive. If you’ve got a problem with that, then I suggest you pull your big grey head out of your equally large and equally grey a—”

“Gentlemen,” Jesse interrupted him.

Captain Atom nodded to her. The ice drained out of Jon instantly and he smiled brilliantly over at Jesse, the effect somewhat ruined by his acne. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“You two have to be able to work together. Is that going to be a problem?”

There was only one answer to that. “No, ma’am.”

“Colonel, on this mission the Captain is in charge. I expect you to act like it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Captain. The Colonel, despite his appearance, does outrank you and has several decades of experience. Keep that in mind.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Unless there’s something else? I do have other weird things to deal with.”

It wasn’t a question, but Captain Atom spoke up. “You’ll need a call sign,” he told Jon.

“I don’t have a secret identity here,” Jesse’s look was knife edged and the alien subsided. “How about…” he suddenly smirked, “Fenrir.”

They both looked at him, confused as they were missing the context for his amusement. Fenrir, bastard son of Loki. And a wolf. Yes, the name suited his new life, as it was his universe’s Loki who cloned him. The locals shared a glance, then nodded. Fenrir it was.

* * *

“Recognized. Captain Atom. 1-2.”

“Recognized. Fenrir. B-0-6.”

“You do realize that announcing it like that will be a fairly stupendous tactical disadvantage if this place is ever attacked,” Jon noted as they examined the arrival room which was entirely empty of anyone else.

“It can be muted,” the captain noted, though he tended to agree. The voice was quite annoying after a while. “But it’s better not to sneak up on people with powers and our sort of experiences. I should tell you sometime what happened the first time Batman pulled that ‘stealth hello’ thing of his on me sometime,” he smiled. They were, after all, undercover. And someone had to make the first move towards patching their little breach.

“I might take you up on that,” Jon answered, his voice noncommittal. Not growing up on this earth, in this time, meant that he was not nearly as impressed by Batman as most of the others. Captain Atom was sure he would learn better in time.

It was at about that point that the much maligned announcement brought people out to meet them. Fewer than he’d expected. The green girl flying in had to be the martian.

A word echoed in his head, in a way vaguely reminiscent of Urgo and other equally unpleasant experiences. _Hello! Welcome to the cave!_

Captain Atom winced, though Jon controlled his own reaction. No point in upsetting the kid. From what he’d read, this was standard procedure on mars. “M’gann, I believe your uncle mentioned—”

“Oh, right, sorry!” she landed and looked like a puppy caught next to a massive mess. “I keep forgetting it’s just everyone on mars communicates telepathically!”

Their other host arrived as she was speaking. Based on the picture Jon had seen, his build and the big S on his chest, this one was Superboy.

“But you stay out of my mind!” he snapped.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to—”

“Just stay out!” his volume rose slightly and her face fell.

Jon let his duffel fall to the floor. “Where should I put my stuff?”

“Oh, you’re staying?” M’gann bounced back with a speed that was vaguely unsettling.

“If you’ll have me,” Jon smiled easily, though he didn’t really feel it. There was something off, almost Stepfordian, in her reaction.

“Of course, of course! It’ll be nice to have someone else around.” She whacked herself in the head, “Hello, Megan! Introductions. I’m M’gann M’orzz, or Megan, which is an earth name! And I’m on earth now.”

“Which would you prefer?” Jon asked as she paused for breath.

“What?”

“M’gann or Megan?”

This pause was a little longer as she considered. To Jon’s intense amusement, Superboy jumped in. Either he was feeling left out, or he was trying to protect the martian. “I’m Superboy.”

“Nice to meet you,” Jon extended a hand to the other clone, who stared at it for a moment.

“You know I could crush that.”

“Better to find out if you’re going to now than in the middle of a firefight.”

Superboy glared at him, but Jon had been glared at by far scarier and just met his gaze evenly. After a moment the boy reluctantly shook it. Jon glanced over at M’gann. “Decided yet?”

“Megan Morse,” she said with a slight gesture that was almost a curtsey, but was probably an alien gesture.

Jon nodded. Her frown was immediate, though he was uncertain of the reason.

“Don’t I get a handshake?” she pouted.

“Of course,” he said and shook her hand politely. “You can call me Jon when we’re off duty and Fenrir when we’re on duty.”

“Just Megan.”

“Just Superboy.”

“I see. Isn’t this supposed to be a covert team not obviously affiliated with the Justice League? You might want to choose a name less obviously affiliated with them, kid,” Jon said to Superboy.

“I am _NOT A KID_!” Superboy yelled.

“Well, that was convincing. Yell that out at random intervals and people will definitely believe you,” Jon said as the other man advanced towards him and loomed over him. Captain Atom twitched forward, then forced himself to step back and not interfere.

“I AM not a child,” he managed to bring the volume back down halfway through his bellow.

“In fact, you are between three weeks and two years old, depending on how such things are calculated,” Jon put in. The other two stared at him in shock. He shrugged. “I did read the reports put together on the Cadmus debacle. Now, if you don’t want to be called kid, that’s fine. You just need to say so like the adult you claim to be.”

“Don’t call me kid,” his voice was a low rumble that was clearly threatening.

Jon ignored it. “Sure thing. Doesn’t change the fact that I’m right about the name. Now, directions to where I can drop my stuff?” Megan gave them, then remained behind to sooth Superboy’s temper. They’d clearly been together quite a bit as the only two living here and she was trying to smooth down his rougher edges.

“Was that smart?” Captain Atom asked as they headed off.

“Probably not. Never claimed to be smart, gramps,” Jon said with a smirk.

Captain Atom almost made a sarcastic remark back, then paused for a moment. Jon wasn’t an idiot. You didn’t survive what he had (even based on even the minimally useful file provided by the alternate earth) if you were. Nor did you make it to colonel in the special forces, if you couldn’t work with people, even difficult people. Which meant this wasn’t teenage male posturing.

“You tested his control of his temper, while I was still there to intervene,” Captain Atom noted.

Jon shrugged. “You give me too much credit. I just like to make people squirm.”

The Captain ignored the words that were coming out of the other man’s mouth. “And you managed to make him think about how he was presenting himself and addressed a rather critical issue with the presentation of the group, in front of me…not bad.”

Jon shrugged uncomfortably as he dumped his bag in one of the unoccupied rooms. By the time they got back, the others were gone. Captain Atom gave him a slight nod and headed out through the zeta tube.

“This is going to be…interesting,” Jon muttered to himself as he headed deeper into the cave, in search of food. Beer probably wasn’t going to be on offer, but at least there would be food. Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Young Justice, but it fairly often sacrifices common sense for conflict ball shenanigans, or in an effort to keep the adults off the missions. I care much less about that.
> 
> In this case, given Megan’s understandable, but aggravating mistake about telepathy (presumably despite her uncle warning her? Though the plot is awfully vague on that point) in the first episode, it seems transparent this would have occurred off-camera earlier. Especially given she and Superboy have been living in the Cave for a number of days, mostly alone at this point. 
> 
> So I turn it into a moderately recurring problem. Also, just a heads up, the next chapter is fairly rough on everyone. There’s some conflict ball juggling that happens in the third episode and Jon isn’t having it.
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


	3. Welcome to Happy Harbor, After Action Report

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skipping the action, right to the cleanup. Don't I know what people want to read?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue lifted from “Welcome to Happy Harbor” Season 1, Episode 3 of Young Justice. This chapter is super rough on almost everyone. I rewatched the episode and…yeah, I had thoughts.

Megan smiled at the rest of the Team as they piled into the bioship. It was so nice that everyone had accepted her telepathy and that they’d worked together to defeat Mr. Twister. She’d felt terrible when she mistook the whole thing for a training session and everyone had been mad at her. But now everything was good. She had the whole Team with her and—

“Oops.”

“What?” Robin asked.

“We forgot Jon at the power plant.”

The rest of the Team looked at each other. “Oops.” They agreed.

“He didn’t bother to help with the fight,” Superboy put in.

“He might have been hurt!” Megan said. Then smacked herself in the head “Hello, Megan!” She reached out with her mind.

_Jon?_

_Megan? Excellent. Report to the Happy Harbor Central Police Station with as many of the others as you can find._

_What? Why? I’ve got everyone here._ She brought them all into the conversation.

_Search and rescue operations. Those tornadoes tore the town apart. The police chief has had some sort of mental breakdown and the fire and rescue chief is dead. I’m keeping everything moving here, but I could use some assistance. Can your telepathy pick up people who are trapped?_

There was a momentary pause as they all absorbed that. _Yes, it can._

_Good. I’ll have assignments when you get here. Hurry up._

_Wait, where is the police station?_ Megan asked.

Jon gave her the directions, though she occasionally heard whispers of other things in the background as he tried to multi-task.

The ship landed next to the half-ruined brick building and Jon emerged almost instantly. He was still wearing the black body armor and gas-mask he’d had on when they decided to take their little joyride as he’d been training, but its black surface, though unbroken was covered in blood and dirt in unpleasant abstract patterns. Several people were trailing him as he continued to give instructions on the way out.

“Can anyone fly that thing?” he asked as he arrived.

“Anyone I allow to, it mostly flies itself, it just needs--”

He turned to Robin. “Get back in, head down to the hospital, they’ve got people there that need to be airlifted to a less damaged one. If you’ve got a cell phone in that fancy belt, you can also try to call in some additional support.” Robin looked around the area, noting the triage areas and dozens of injured people sitting around in shock and didn’t argue.

“You’re on search and rescue,” he turned to Megan and waved to one of the people following him, a dark-skinned heavy-set man in a firefighter’s uniform. “He’ll tell you where to go. Clear the dockside first. If we’ve really got everyone should be a fast check, but I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”

The older man nodded sharply and led Megan away from the others. He turned to Kid Flash. “Head to the basement. Dispatch is still operating out of there and they’re getting more calls all the time. Power is out everywhere. The roads are torn up, gas lines are leaking and people are desperate. You go where she tells you and deliver what she tells you and bring back anyone she tells you.”

“Delivery duty. Aw, man, I can do—"

Jon’s glare silenced him. “Go.”

He went.

“You’re on dig duty. Be careful, we’ve got people trapped,” he jerked his head towards the woman in the paramedic uniform. “She’ll get you where you need to be.”

“You’re not the boss of—”

Jon moved suddenly, so fast he almost triggered Superboy’s instincts, but instead of striking the kid, he just shoved two fingers into the red S on his shirt. “You want to be worthy of the symbol you wear? Go help people. If not, I have no more time to waste on you.”

He turned his back on Superboy and turned to Aqualad. “We’ve got a dozen ships and docks sinking in the harbor. They’re blocking supplies and help getting in. Pull them out, then report back. We’ll need your help with damaged power systems too,” he waved a hand at a pale man in the remnants of a very nice suit. “He’ll get you there and back.”

“They’re also leaking chemicals and oil into—” the man began.

“Don’t care. Go.”

Everyone scattered at that and Jon headed back inside to continue the search and rescue effort. This wasn’t really something he was great at, but what it crucially needed was the attitude of command. Someone to make a decision and get everyone else to go along with it. The crucial thing in these few hours was to keep everything moving until help could arrive.

It took four hours before the National Guard started to pull in. And another two for them to be sufficiently up to speed that he could pull out. By then all the people who would be saved, had been. The long process of treating the wounded people and town was still ahead of them, but it had begun well.

The trip back to the Cave was mostly silent, until they gathered in the Mission Room, where Red Tornado was waiting.

* * *

Megan dropped the crushed robot she’d been telekinetically carrying the entire trip through the Cave on the main table as the others gathered around their ‘den mother’. Except Jon, who was sitting in the corner and slowly pealing off his armor, piece by piece. Each one got polished clean before he placed it on another table.

“It was clearly created to sabotage or destroy you,” Aqualad noted.

“Agreed,” Red Tornado said.

“Is that why you wouldn’t help us?” Megan asked.

“No. This was your battle. I do not believe it is my role to solve your problems for you. Nor should you solve mine for me.”

Megan, Superboy and Red Tornado heard Jon’s snort at that, but the man’s hands didn’t slow in their work and he didn’t look up.

“But, if you’re in danger…”

“Consider this matter closed,” Red Tornado said, turning his back on them and marching away towards his own quarters.

“Batman, Aquaman and Flash, they’d have jumped right in to fix things,” Kid Flash noted.

“Guess if we’re gonna have a babysitter a heartless machine is exactly what we need,” Robin added.

Jon carefully stripped off another piece of his armor. A careful observer would have noted that it did not take that much force to remove and his fingers should not have been gripping it so tightly that they’d gone white.

“Dude! Harsh,” Kid Flash said.

“And inaccurate. I have a heart. Carbon-steel alloy. I also have excellent hearing,” Red Tornado said, as he slowed and turned back.

“Right. Sorry. I’ll strive to be more…accurate,” Robin said, shamefacedly.

“And more respectful,” Kaldur added, dropping a hand on the younger man’s shoulder.

Jon didn’t look up. “We should talk in the morning.”

Red Tornado paused in his pivot. “If there is something to discuss—”

“There is. But if we discuss it now I’m going to say something I may regret. Let’s all get some rest,” Jon’s voice was as toneless as the robot’s.

At that there was a moment of silence, then the meeting broke up. The others headed out, though Superboy did pause to apologize to Megan for constantly blowing up at her. She paused before heading off to bed herself. Part of her wanted to talk the Jon, but the emotions coming off him were actually frightening. Not in their complexity, but in their absolute purity. Most people had layers. But at this moment, Jon was pure fury.

* * *

Despite that warning, everything was good in the morning. Jon was up and dressed casually. Visibly unarmed, the young man had made a giant breakfast for everyone. They chatted amiably while everyone selected what they wanted and took a seat around the table (except Red Tornado, who stood nearby). The man waited for the exact moment when everyone finally relaxed to strike.

“Are you familiar with the term AAR?” Jon asked, his voice warm and jovial.

The others shook their heads, but Superboy nodded. “An AAR is an After Action Review is a process by which the parties establish what happened, why it happened and sustain strengths and improve weaknesses,” his tone took on that odd cadence of when he was reciting something that had been forced into his head while he was in the pod.

“That’s right. I think perhaps we should undertake one. Starting at the beginning, assigning missions and mission briefings are outside our authority,” Jon’s gaze flicked towards Red Tornado standing by the table. “But usually more information and more warning are preferable to enable proper preparation, both of plans and equipment. I was the only person fully equipped. None of us had any communication gear and we took to the field without a chain of command, with no proper rules of engagement and with only minimal knowledge of each others abilities. Most of the problems which followed flowed from that. But let’s walk through it from the time of our arrival. We touched down to investigate, heard the disturbance, saw people panicking. At that point Robin detached himself from the group and forward deployed to locate and engage the enemy. Why?” All the warmth was gone from Jon’s voice by this point.

Robin swallowed the bite of egg he was eating and smirked up at Jon, “You just said it. He was the enemy and he was causing panic and destroying stuff.”

“I see. So, possibly our most skilled scout, having located the enemy chose to give away his position and our presence, rather than reporting back. This goes back directly to the lack of communication and chain of command issues previously identified. At that point the remainder of the team moved to support.”

“Except you,” Superboy noted.

“Indeed. I’d been intending to move to intercept Robin while the rest of you argued. Unfortunately Twister’s second strike knocked down an outbuilding. Several people were trapped and I chose to prioritize rescue over finding the source of the problem. That was my error. I assumed the source was likely to be some sort of malfunctioning device—”

“Well, technically,” Kid Flash began.

Jon talked right over him. “And prioritized search and rescue over search and destroy. This goes back to the inadequacy of our briefing and lack of communication, as well as our failure to establish a chain of command.”

“A briefing can only contain as much information as is possessed by the briefer,” Red Tornado noted mechanically.

“True. Our mission, once again, was to investigate,” Jon’s gaze flicked back to Robin, “not engage. At no point in the operation after identifying the threat did any one of you report in until the initial engagement was over. You do understand that investigating is only useful if you share the results with your allies?”

“There wasn’t time—” Kid Flash pointed out.

“You said we didn’t have communications!” Robin countered.

“Megan, you can’t telepathically communicate with Red Tornado, but you could with your uncle, right?”

“Yes,” she admitted.

“And the bioship has some communications ability?”

“Nothing that will work with...most stuff from earth!” she said defensively.

“Well then, that’s one thing we probably can fix.”

She nodded, eager to have something positive.

“The engagement proceeded in an embarrassingly ineffective fashion, which is only to be expected as there was no established chain of command. Finally, it was suggested that Megan read Twister’s mind. A turn of events which would have occurred sooner had we set up proper rules of engagement laying out when telepathy was appropriate. And here’s where everything fell apart.”

Megan hung her head.

“An AAR is intended to figure out why people did what they did. Why did you assume that Twister was actually Red Tornado?”

“They had the same power and were both robots,” she said in a small voice.

“But Twister is a member of the Justice League. The damage to the power plan was already catastrophic. Four people were dead—”

“What? From that?” she interrupted him for the first time in their acquaintance.

“Oh,” Jon nodded slightly. “Everyone back home has your abilities, right?”

“Mostly,” she ducked her head again.

“Which must also make reconstruction work a lot easier, especially given your tech.”

“Sure,” she agreed, confused now.

“So a test like that wouldn’t actually do any real damage to people or property. That makes sense. You’ll want to remember, we’re a lot more primitive and delicate than you’re used to,” Jon said with a smile.

She nodded happily at that.

“Which does not explain why the three of you, who have been on this planet your entire lives believed that for an instant,” he snapped, turning his attention to Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad.

They glanced at one another.

“That wasn’t a rhetorical question,” Jon said.

“Speedy said—” Kid Flash began.

“We thought they wouldn’t let us actually _do_ anything,” Robin interrupted.

“The circumstantial evidence did appear to support the conclusion that this was a drill by Red Tornado,” Kaldur added.

Jon turned to look at Tornado. “I was under the impression that the job of the Justice League was to protect people. Have I misunderstood?”

“You have not.”

“You’re not in the habit of dressing up like supervillains and attacking places?”

“We are not.”

Put like that it seemed really stupid. Robin and Kid Flash looked away, but Kaldur kept his gaze even.

“The problem here is a complete absence of local command, combined with a collapse in trust for high command. That’s a problem for everything going forward.”

He let that sit for a moment.

“Now I heard what happened at the power plant from lots of folks, including all of you. Afterwards, I was a bit busy with search and rescue. I’ve got the basic outline from Red Tornado’s report. Would someone else like to take us through it?”

The invitation hung there. Robin broke first.

“We split up and—”

“Why?” Jon interrupted ruthlessly.

They all looked shamefacedly at Megan. Kaldur spoke. “We blamed her for our error.”

“Well, well, well, actual progress,” Jon said. There were five identical glares at him at that. “Now, having been defeated as a gang—note I don’t call you a team—you decided to reduce your forces further and then hurl yourself one at a time against a force that had defeated you altogether. Is that right?”

“When you put it like that—“ Robin began.

It was Kid Flash’s turn to interrupt him. “We couldn’t just let Twister destroy the town.”

“Indeed not. So you attacked from the beach?”

“What?” Kid Flash was confused by the question, but both Robin and Kaldur got it.

“When you attacked. You had the advantage in speed. You could attack from whatever angle you chose. So clearly you attacked from the beach side where return fire would go into the water, not the town?” Jon’s voice was deceptively mild.

Kid Flash, who had spent hours running through the town to help its people recover from dozens of tornadoes and lightning strikes suddenly went pale. “No…” he whispered.

Even Superboy was considering Jon's point.

“While they were fighting, you contacted Red Tornado and asked for help?” he asked Megan.

She nodded.

“Which he refused. Why?”

“As I have already explained. This was their fight—”

Jon snapped away from the table so fast that everyone (except Megan) rose instinctively to defend themselves, but he wasn’t moving towards them, instead it was towards Red Tornado.

“You know whose fight it wasn’t? The civilians who you _just_ said the Justice League is supposed to protect. But they were the ones doing the dying while you stood in this cave and refused to involve yourself. That was _contemptible_. Failure is one thing. Competing priorities is one thing. Can’t is one thing. But you didn’t even try.” The others began to glance around, considering that for a moment in light of the destruction they’d seen. He spun back to face them, “And you all were glad of it. So eager to prove your independence that it doesn’t matter who gets caught in the crossfire. You prioritized their pride over innocent lives,” he said turning back to Red Tornado. You know, despite taking the night to cool off, I’m still quite…irked by this whole thing. I think I’ll retire for a while to reconsider my involvement with this entire sordid project.”

He stalked towards the door, pausing briefly. “As I doubt you’re willing to do the sensible thing and cancel this project, the bare minimum you can do is resolve your chain of command and communication problems. I also _strongly_ suggest you complete the AAR for this operation and your little infiltration of Cadmus. You might be surprised by what you realize if you turn on your brains and consider the effects of your actions on people besides yourselves.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was painful. Comments always welcome.


	4. Interregnum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with fallout by rationalization and avoidance always works, right? At least they're getting organized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m switching up the order slightly here. As it seems insane to begin training after going on a second mission. And don’t even get me started on the idea that they directly identify that they need a team leader then decide to just go on the mission without choosing someone. Here the competence of the Team is directly undercut to create narrative conflict in a way I find infuriating. So, no, not happening. Some dialogue taken from Season 1, Episode 4.
> 
> Also, I did my best to come up with a reason why Red Tornado’s behavior was less bad than it appears. Don’t know how well I did, let me know what you think. Warning, this chapter is a bit rough on Kaldur. Who honestly deserves it least of anyone.

“So, I hear you really got in Tornado’s face,” Captain Atom said blandly.

He had full access to all Cave systems, of course. Overriding Jon’s door lock had been a simple matter. The not-kid was lying on the bed, flicking a ball up into the air and catching it. The Captain had noticed the tiny flicker of motion and eye contact when the door opened, but Jon had clearly chosen not to react. Despite the casual pose, Atom could see sweat on Jon’s face and shirt. He’d been exercising a few minutes earlier.

“Like I said. No one ever claimed I was smart.”

“I discussed the matter with him. He was…upset? I think. Hard to tell with him. He’s been a hero for decades.”

Jon continued tossing the ball. “Get to the point, Gramps.”

“In his defense, he didn’t actually know where the fight was occurring. You’d already evacuated the power plant and he understood the battle to be continuing there.”

“So you say he wasn’t apathetic, just ignorant? That’s not much better.”

The superhero entered the room and let the door shut and noise cancellation kick in to keep their discussion actually private.

“Not sure I disagree. But I’ve been against this from the start.”

Jon sat up slightly. “To be fair, this was a bad first mission choice. Populated area. Civilians all around. Unknown threat. Not exactly what this team is supposed to be for. Covert operations on enemy territory are a whole different ball game. Straight up fight against a supervillain on friendly turf is more a Justice League thing as I understand it.”

“And again, no way he could know that.”

“Except,” and Jon’s voice shifted to a mockery of Red Tornado’s, “Mission assignments are the responsibility of the Batman.” He dropped the imitation, but got all the way up. “Why were we even sent on that job?”

“Internal politics, mostly.”

Jon rolled his eyes.

“It’s not that bad. It’s more…Red Tornado has been their advocate inside. He’s looking for opportunities for them to prove themselves. I think…look, he’s been in the League a long time and will go on until someone finally kills him. I think he just wants to help the next generation avoid some of the problems he’s seen with the current members.”

Jon cocked his head curiously.

“We work together all right, but we all came up as individuals. We have our own areas of interest. Own enemies. We come together pretty well when there’s a planetary level threat, but most of the time…well, Superman stays out of Gotham.”

“You realize that doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“The goal is to make a team that actually works together on all sorts of missions instead of just when the world is in peril.”

“Not a bad goal.”

“But you’re not wrong, his decision not to interfere had severe consequences here. He’s offered his resignation.”

“And dodge out on cleaning up the mess?”

“Almost exactly what the rest of us said. The League is providing support to rebuild the town. He’s going to be the point person on it.”

“Good.”

“Are you actually considering withdrawing?”

Jon gave him an utterly flat look. “I don’t give up.”

“Then what was the point?”

“Why does everything have to have a point? Sometimes you just want see people squirm.”

“Yeah. That’s bullshit.”

Jon snorted at that.

“Almost everything you say is.”

Jon smirked. “You’re just picking up on that Cap? Come on man, aren’t you supposed to be smart?”

“I never said that,” the other soldier said, mimicking Jon.

They both laughed.

The door opened behind the Captain, revealing the rest of the team. Apparently their annoyance at Jon was insufficient to exempt him from the shared solidarity of the team against the League. The look of pure jealousy on Superboy’s face was invisible to everyone except the folks inside the room. “Apologies for interrupting,” Kaldur said. “But we’ve been considering your argument. We are addressing the communication concerns.”

Robin held up a small box full of earpieces, “Genuine Bat-tech!”

Jon nodded sharply. “Good.”

“And we discussed who should be in charge.”

“Batman said we needed to decide ourselves who the right leader of this team is,” Robin cut in again.

“We’re discussing that and wanted to make sure we got your insight,” Kid Flash said with a smile that was obviously ingratiating.

“Oh. Goody. Politics.”

“I’ll leave you to play with your friends,” Captain Atom teased with a little smile. Jon rolled his eyes, but the others stiffened in fury as the superhero swept out of the room.

“So, Captain Atom is your mentor?” Robin asked curiously.

“My grandfather. He’s older than he looks. So, are we doing this as an election? A tournament? Pie-eating contest?” The change of subject was unsubtle, but no one wanted to push it.

“That has not been decided,” Kaldur put in. “It is the position of the League that we will not be deployed until we resolve this matter amongst ourselves.”

“So we have to make a choice!” Robin said eagerly.

“The right choice,” Kid Flash countered, tapping the lightning bolt on his chest to suggest what he thought that was.

“Batman is in—”

“You aren’t Batman—”

The two descended into squabbling, over age, power and mentors until Superboy slammed a fist against the wall hard enough the dent the reinforced wall and silence them.

“Just choose someone,” he snapped.

“You don’t want it?” Megan asked.

He shook his head. “You?”

“After the Mister Twister Fiasco?” she shook her head again.

“You did all right. Best of all of us, by Fenrir’s evaluation.”

She blushed at that.

“Which leaves us with three candidates. All the most experienced in this…arena,” Jon said, waving a hand at the three original members of the team.

“You do not desire to lead?” Kaldur asked.

“Oh, no, I definitely do.”

“Then are there not four candidates?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Superboy asked. “You’re a dick, but you weren’t wrong.”

“A leader requires either authority, force, or personal respect to lead. There is no solid organization to provide authority, I lack the capacity to apply force and I do not have your respect in that fashion.”

There was an awkward moment as several people tried to assure him that they respected him, only to be waved off.

“Yeah, that wasn’t fishing for compliments or reassurance. You three are the only ones who don’t risk rebellion or splitting the group.”

“So, how do we decide?” Megan asked.

“How would you decide back home?”

“It’s easier when everyone’s a telepath. And there’s less need for leadership in small groups like this. Though there is an old martian saying about the person who wants it least being best suited to rule,” she glanced at Kaldur.

“Untrue, but it would avoid either of them being grumpy,” Jon said, waving at the pair of squabbling superheroes, “that the other got it.”

Superboy nodded. “He did well at Cadmus.”

Jon glanced at him. He shrugged. “I looked at the reports.”

“And?”

“It worked.”

“Operationally, yes. Tactically, it was a disaster. But we can discuss that later. Choosing a leader. Robin, Wally?”

They glanced at Kaldur. The older boy stood stock still, clearly surprised by the entire sequence of events here.

Wally was all for it almost instantly. Robin was more hesitant. The kid clearly thought he had something to prove, but peer pressure is a powerful force.

“Then we have a leader,” Jon said, with a mocking salute.

“I will carry the burden of leadership until one of you is ready to take it from me. Robin, please inform Batman we are available for missions. Kid Flash, please inform the League we are prepared for training. Megan, I believe your uncle is skilled in creating team exercises. Please request he create one for us. Superboy, at this point I require you to acquire additional clothing and begin preparations to engage in some social activity outside this group. School, a social group, a religion. Some interaction.”

The others scattered, but Superboy remained for just a moment, causing Megan to pause at the corner. Then the clone shrugged and smiled. “Well, can’t say you’re not the boss of me,” he headed out.

“He’ll delay unless you constantly watch him, you know.”

“I am aware. I am also aware that you manipulated that choice. Quite skillfully. Why?”

Jon cocked his head at the man, face a mask of bafflement. He let the moment stretch, but Kaldur seemed to almost have Teal’c’s patience. The thought of his old friend brought a smile to his lips and loosened them a little. “Well, at least you’ve got the sense to do this in private. Do you want the whole reason, or just the bits that are nice?”

“The whole reason.”

“Well, you are the best candidate everyone would accept. I would be a better choice, but the others won’t follow me. Which leaves me in the role of…well, as an old friend of mine used to say quiz custotet ipses custetes,” his smile broadened as he imagined Daniel’s indignation at the deliberately butchered Latin. Fortunately, his friend had mostly forgotten that Jon had been forced to learn the language while stuck in a horrifying time loop. Mostly horrifying time loop.

Kaldur did blink at that. Apparently he spoke Latin as well. “Who watches the watchmen?” he translated, without complaining about Jon’s pronunciation.

“Or gadfly, if you like. Try to push people into doing the right thing, making sure you don’t abuse your power. All the fun stuff. Honestly, it’s my favorite position—” at least of the positions I’m discussing with a teenager.

“And the parts of the reason that are not nice?”

“The others would accept you and I’m not sure you would accept any role except leader.”

Kaldur raised an eyebrow. “I did not wish this burden, nor did I request it.”

“No. But you did commit treason.”

“What?!?” for the first time he’d provoked the man to break out of his level tone as actual shock and anger surfaced. Muscles tensed, fists clenched and actually rose to his weapons, but Jon kept his hands spread, visibly unarmed.

“That’s what they call it when you disobey a direct order from your king, isn’t it?”

Kaldur slowly forced himself to relax. “You know nothing of Atlantis. But I will not be distracted by an insult. We all disobeyed our mentors.”

“You all did, yes. All three of _you_. But they were disobeying their mentors, you disobeyed your king. That’s a different thing. They’re rebellious teens, you are actually, quite literally, a rebel. Your king let you get away with it. Great. But you were the only one actually in a real chain of command and you violated it. Only way to make sure you don’t do that again is to put you on top of it.”

There was a moment of silence in response to that. “Fenrir, the location of this base has been compromised in the past. Familiarize yourself with the security systems and make alterations as needed to ensure that any invader relying on past information will fail.”

Jon gave an amused salute and headed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I like Kaldur and was real rough on him here, but the problem is that based on what Jon knows (having read the reports about Cadmus) he’s right. Not about motive (as Kaldur is clearly not ambitious or particularly rebellious/insubordinate generally) but narratively there’s a fairly painful misstep here. Kaldur is not a sidekick. Little is really clear about Atlantis, but the closest thing that makes much sense is essentially a squire, apprentice, or household knight. This isn’t ‘I’m rebelling against a father figure’ like Robin and Wally, it’s more like violating sacred oaths I would expect to be taken when joining the household of your king. That is a very different thing. The original mission there might be an argument about, but that last bit where his king gives him a direct order and he refuses? It would not be out of line for that to end in execution. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! Comments are always welcome.


	5. Santa Prisca, Preparation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One trains before going on missions, usually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue is taken from Season 1, Episode 5 as I continue to delay their first real mission.

Jon failed to make any progress with computer security. It was way over his head. Robin found him as he was staring in total frustration at a screen of nonsense.

“Whatcha doing?” Robin asked.

“Considering giving up and playing solitaire as your computers drive me loco,” Jon explained.

“Not real good with computers?”

“No.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“Because our illustrious leader ordered me to upgrade security.” There was a pause. “Which is intended to force me to ask for help. From you, or Red Tornado. Want to help me?”

“Yep. Meant to do it, but there’s so much other stuff to do. Let’s get to work.”

The next two hours of Jon’s life were fairly terrible. It was like all the worst lectures from Carter or Daniel, with none of the amusement that came from tormenting his friends. Finally, he ducked out and went to work setting up defensive stashes throughout the facility. Radios, weapons, basic equipment.

After that, he got to work welding shut several of the exits, then got to work on identifying locations for a new exit. He’d need some help from Superboy to actually punch a hole through the rock, but it would be doable. Before he could go find his fellow clone, however, the announcement came over the PA, calling them all to the mission room. It was time for training.

The woman waiting for them there was tall, blonde and attractive. Jon cursed his teenage body again. A ripped blue half-jacket showed her bandaged arm. Below that was a black leotard. Tights ran down to combat boots and there was a thin collar wrapped around her throat. Based on the files Jon had read, she was a trained counselor, as well as being an expert in hand-to-hand combat and possessing the inherent ability to use her voice as a sonic weapon. She certainly had the grace of the former, though her movements favored her right side, as there were bandages around her left arm. But it didn’t impair her as much as she was pretending. It was a trap.

Skilled, strong, beautiful and cunning, but still missing some indefinable something. Suddenly he was an old man again, far from everyone he loved and cared for and so very, very alone. They wouldn’t even be missing him, because he was right there with them. They just weren’t with him. That was a bizarre feeling. Then Megan’s hand came to rest on his shoulder, silently supportive and he was back. He nodded politely to her, but shifted away and she let the contact fall away.

Jon was one of the last ones there, but he still beat Superboy and so got to see the flash of disappointment on the other clone’s broad face at the sight of their trainer. Kid Flash certainly wasn’t disappointed, in fact he was drooling so much Jon was a bit concerned the poor boy would slip if he tried to run. Fortunately that didn’t seem likely as Black Canary took up position in the center of the illuminated ring. Superboy started to head back out.

“Stick around. Class is in session.”

Superboy paused, but his body language was entirely closed off, arms crossed, jaw clenched.

“I consider it an honor to be your teacher. I’ll throw a lot at you. Everything I’ve learned from my own mentors,” she pulled off her jacket and gave a theatrical wince and rubbed her arm, “And my own bruises.”

“What happened?” Megan asked, concerned.

“The job. Now, combat is about controlling conflict. Putting the battle on your terms. You should always be acting, never reacting. I’ll need a sparring partner.”

“Right here! Yeah!” Kid Flash volunteered eagerly and strode into the illuminated ring. “After this, I’ll show you my moves,” he said, giving her the finger guns in what was clearly intended to be a charming fashion.

Without warning she struck, a blindingly quick strike towards his face that he could easily block, but which shifted his weigh allowing the follow up sweep to knock him to the ground with a grunt and a mocking “Failure” notification from the electronic floor.

“Uh…hurts so good,” he groaned.

“Good block. But did anyone see what he did wrong?”

“Ooh, ooh!” Robin raised hand like the schoolboy he almost certainly was. “He hit on teacher and got served?”

“Dude!” Kid Flash snapped, defensively.

“He allowed me to dictate the terms of—”

“Oh, please. With my powers, the battle’s always on my terms,” Superboy cut in. “I’m a living weapon and this is a waste of my time.”

“Superboy,” Kaldur began, but Black Canary just smiled as she turned to face the clone.

“Prove it,” she said.

He entered the ring and when they were both ready, struck out with a blow which wouldn’t have killed her, but would have left broken bones. She wasn’t there to be hit, instead using his own momentum to toss him across the ring. Instead of rolling as he should, he landed square on his back, to the floor’s mockery. Robin laughed, only to be elbowed by Kaldur.

Jon moved slightly around the circle and began to stretch, noting that Black Canary noticed the motion, despite being focused on the superhuman who could easily kill her if this bout went wrong. The clone on the ground pushed himself back to his feet, anger coming off him in waves.

“You’re angry. Good, but don’t react. Channel that anger into—”

He rushed her, but she was already in the air, going over his low strike and kicking down, knocking him onto his face with all the force of his own lunge and her weight.

Robin chuckled again, though he did muffle it better. Not that that would be enough to keep Superboy from hearing it. The others were starting to look concerned however.

Superboy rolled onto his back and got to his feet slapping aside the offered hand.

“That’s it. I’m done,” he said turning away from her.

She dropped her left hand on his shoulder, “Training is mandatory.”

He shook her off, but didn’t leave the ring, instead staring at her.

“Is this training?” Jon asked, drawing everyone’s attention and breaking the tension.

“Obviously,” Kaldur said.

“Sorry, usually in sparring matches I’ve seen, someone announces when it begins. Avoids…accidents.”

“Do you think your enemies will warn you before they attack?” Robin asked.

“Nope, but they’ll also shoot at me with live ammo. You do that in training and I’ll be pissed.”

“It’s a fair point,” Black Canary cut in, “But you’re experienced and know—”

“Except they aren’t,” Jon said. “Not Superboy, not Megan. And both have superhuman abilities. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got stuff to learn from you. But they need a strong grounding in superstrength combat techniques which you can’t give them. Superboy’s right. This is more than a waste of time, it’s potentially counter to their long term development.”

Well, that had certainly set the cat amongst the, heh, canaries, as it were. Superboy seemed shocked someone was on his side, but everyone else was darting gazes back between him and Black Canary.

“I do have superhuman abilities.”

“Not strength, or speed, which are what matter here.”

“Fenrir, step into the ring,” she said. Superboy, still confused by being agreed with, retreated without another word.

“A fight can also tell you a lot about your opponent,” she lectured the others, turning her back to him, as Jon stepped easily into the ring, keeping his body loose. That was a trap, like the arm. Real vulnerability meant to provoke a reaction she could predict and control.

“Are you ready?” he asked, hands raised.

She turned back and nodded. “Standard positioning. U.S. military style training. It’s good, but basic,” she said as her own hands came up.

“Soft martial arts style, focused on using your opponent’s strength against them when they overextend,” Jon countered, though that was only half of it. She was also excellent at positioning her opponent where her sonic attack would hurt only them, or fling them into something useful and as good at buying herself the moment of space it would take to use the attack. “Good, but what do you do when faced with someone who chooses to fight defensively?”

“Canary Cry.”

“Hard on the sparring ring, isn’t it?” he asked. She nodded and gave him a bow which was distraction as she struck forward, shifting styles as easily as he could to a harder style, more focused on strikes, especially kicks. She did know the fighting style he’d chosen and was driving him back fairly easily with a range his younger form couldn’t match. He didn’t try, letting her drive him around until suddenly he shifted, launching a series of strikes straight out of boxing, just to confuse her. It didn’t work, she blocked, or dodged, but did step back.

“Boxing?” she asked, surprised.

He shrugged and she struck again, going for the grapple. This time he spun away with a move stolen from one of the Jaffa martial arts Teal’c was a master of, capturing her arm, but a nasty kick forced him to release her.

“That one’s new,” she admitted.

He shrugged again.

“You’re good, but you’ve got a lot still to learn.”

“Wanna bet?” he asked, suddenly serious.

She paused. “What?”

“We go all out. Canary Cry is fine. I win, you get one of the heavies in to give Megan and Superboy the basics they need to benefit from your lessons. You win, I’ll shut up and soldier for the rest of your training and get the others to as well.”

There were a few hoots at that, but Jon smiled, “I live here and don’t sleep much, consider how creative you want me to get, guys.” The hoots stopped.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.

“I don’t want to be hurt. You could also just give me what I want. I’m totally fine with that as a solution too.”

“You know you can’t win. You don’t have that killer instinct,” her eyes narrowed as she considered his words.

“Because I didn’t fall for the very obvious false weakness on your left side? Or because I didn’t destroy my own argument by attacking when your back was turned?”

She frowned. “Sometimes people have to learn lessons the hard way. I think you’re one of them.”

“I’m definitely one of them,” he extended a hand. “So, bet?”

“Bet.”

She agreed, taking it and striking out towards him the instant they let go. There were two ways he could do this. He could simply make her beat on him until she couldn’t stand it anymore, by refusing to surrender. She’d probably stop before his pain tolerance did. But some part of fifteen year old him refused to win that way. Instead, for the first time in the fight, he kicked out, landing a blow at the same time as her strike landed. He launched an all out assault as she tried to step back. If she had even a moment to use her Cry, then he was finished.

Her defenses were excellent. Besides Teal’c she was the most impressive hand-to-hand combatant he’d ever faced. No chance at all he was going to win fairly, not even if he’d had his old body and all its stamina and muscle-mass he wouldn’t have had much chance. She would just wait out his assault until he slowed, then take him down, hard.

Well, as Vimes had said, time for artful. For a moment he was almost distracted by the thought that he could probably become very rich introducing this world to Terry Pratchett, if only he could get his hands on them…

Then he was moving and made the mistake she was waiting for, overextending himself. She caught the arm and went for the throw, half expecting it to be a feint to turn this into a grappling match. But he went over easily as she slammed him down on the floor, which announced his failure, he was still moving. He’d gone over too easily because he was moving with the throw and continued to spin as he hit the ground. His shoulder dislocated with a terrible pop, but his legs were scything into hers and as she fell he rolled, bad arm going under him in an agonizing movement which put his good elbow in position to strike her throat as her back slammed into the ground.

He didn’t, of course. It stopped as it brushed the collar.

“Ouch,” she said.

“Ouch,” he agreed.

They lay there for a moment.

“You won,” she admitted, rolling to her feet and extending a hand.

“Thanks,” she said as he took it and she pulled him back up.

“I can put it back, if you like,” she said.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“I need some help. Superboy, can you hold him?”

Superboy looked startled. “I could break him”

“Then don’t break me. Just hold me. Ribs and spine so she can push it back in.”

The clone awkwardly did as he was told and Black Canary quickly pushed the shoulder back into place.

“Thanks,” he said, first to her, then to Superboy. The other clone looked like he’d been given some sort of electric shock.

“Get yourself a sling from medical,” she ordered.

He nodded and headed out, cradling his arm.

The rest of the training went fairly smoothly, her evaluating each of their styles and capabilities to come up with a more individualized lesson plan.

* * *

“Atom, do you have a moment?” Canary asked, catching the other Leaguer on their station.

“Of course. What can I do for you?”

“It’s about Jon.”

“Yes?”

“He has an…interesting skill set and a shockingly high pain tolerance,” she was beating around the bush for some reason.

“I told you he’d be an asset to the team.”

“Look, we all agreed to a certain amount of privacy for the kids and I appreciate you being up front about the DOD’s involvement, but the signals I was getting off him. I misread a lot of them, but looking back…” her voice trailed off.

“Canary?”

“If he’s a product of the DOD, then I think the League may need to start looking into them in more detail,” she finally said.

Atom smiled. “Worried the DOD is running some sort of child soldier program?”

“Yes.”

“They’re not. Most of his story is his to tell, but I can probably at least tell you he’s a refugee. It’s a whole parallel worlds thing.”

“Oh,” she relaxed somewhat. It said something about her life that him being from a parallel world was both accepted and actually comforting.

“How’s the rest of it going?”

“Superboy is as resistant as expected. With surprising support from your protégé. In fact, he’s requested that one of our ‘heavies’ provide him and Megan with some basic grounding in superpowered combat.”

“He’s not wrong.”

“I know. But I’m more…available then you lot are.”

“If you’re asking me—”

“No. Having Batman be mission control they’ll just about accept since he runs that for us too. I bring in anyone’s mentor and this whole thing goes wrong. Superman would be ideal…”

“But he’s still creeped out by being cloned?”

“Yes. It’s not anyone’s fault, but…”

“Bad situation, not getting any better.”

“Can’t be you. Can’t be Aquaman. Can’t be—”

“It’s got to be Captain Marvel or Wonder Woman,” Atom interrupted her litany.

“And since Marvel is…unpredictably available…”

“Wonder Woman. You want me to ask her?”

“No. I can do it.”

Atom gave her a look.

“We get along fine, it’s just the whole ‘hail fellow warrior’ gets me down sometimes. Feels like she’s looking for a replacement for her sisters.”

“You could talk to her about it.”

“No, I think I’ll continue to sulk inwardly for the rest of time. That sounds real healthy,” she laughed to herself and departed with a wave.

* * *

The next week or so went by quickly. Diana was able to pull some time free and spend it with Megan and Superboy, giving them a crash course in the basics of superpowered fighting. Meanwhile Black Canary was working on the others. Except Jon, whose shoulder was still recovering. He got endless stamina training instead.

By the end of it, even Jon was glad to get a mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so here's the thing combat for people with invulnerability, superstrength, or superspeed is actually likely to be extremely different than combat for folks without those things. Leverage is likely to matter a lot less to someone who can literally pick up your entire body weight with one arm. Footwork probably matters a lot more if you're running at the speed of sound. A choke-hold on someone whose windpipe you can't crush...can simply be ignored. So...no, Canary is not the right person to train the almost untrained Megan and the only virtually trained Superboy.
> 
> Comments are always welcome!


	6. Santa Prisca, Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first real mission. Goes like clockwork. Okay, somewhat damaged clockwork. But clockwork.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue taken from Season 1, Episode 4 as we finally get to the first real mission. This chapter also contains google translated Spanish. Sorry about that.

The briefing was simple. Something had gone wrong with an island drug manufacturing facility the League watched. Go in, find out what was happening and report back. There allegedly weren’t even any civilians around.

Jon almost smiled. Sneaking through the jungle to play a lethal round of tag with drug dealers. It was almost like a few of his earlier operations. Okay, the plan wasn’t much like them and the company wasn’t at all like them, but there were similarities.

The first part of plan went perfect. Aqualad slipped through the marine defenses to disable their shoreward defenses and the cloaked bioship got them in close. They all clambered out before letting the bioship float back up and follow them from above the treeline. There had been some discussion of air-deploying, but that had turned into an argument about whether Superboy needed a harness or not, until Jon just asked why they couldn’t land.

Robin’s argument that this was so much more ‘special opsy’ did not carry the day.

Separation from their putative leader on their very first mission as a team was not ideal, but wasn’t avoidable. Jon had repeatedly requested clarity on who was in charge of their separate team, but there had been no agreement on the point and Kaldur had declined to make a decision, believing he could run the operation via radio.

Everyone except Robin and Jon was in a stealth version of their costume and Megan had successfully talked Superboy into putting a sweater over his bright red shoot-me symbol, but only Jon had anything resembling actual jungle camouflage. Though Megan’s active camouflage was very impressive. Robin still had his usual outfit, but he managed to be fairly stealthy despite it, nothing like what he could manage in urban environments though. In the jungle, Jon had the edge.

They headed towards the rendezvous point, maintaining radio silence. They were moving in a dispersed pattern with Robin in the lead and Jon watching the back as the scouts. “I’ve got mines. Watch your step,” Jon broadcast in a low whisper.

“Don’t worry, I’m leading us through them,” Robin said. “Just follow my lead.”

Before Jon could reply to that, Superboy spoke up, “Did you hear that?”

“Uh, no. Wait. Is this a super-hearing thing?” Kid Flash asked.

“You do have good ears,” Megan said.

“Okay, Rob—” Kid Flash began.

“Team lead, instructions,” Jon cut in before he could finish that sentence.

“Superboy, Kid switch to infrared. See if you’re being tracked.”

Kid pulled on his goggles (Jon having activated his own nightvision the moment they landed) while Superboy just focused. “Squad of bozos incoming,” Flash reported.

“Two squads,” Superboy reported. “But they’ll meet each other before they find us.”

Gunfire burst out as the two groups ran right into each other. Apparently they were not allies.

“No super hearing required now,” Kid put in.

“Hold back,” Aqualad ordered. “Robin, see who we are dealing with.”

“Already on it,” their lead scout said, having vanished from sight, much to Kid Flash’s concern.

“Moving to flank,” Jon reported, shifting to where he actually had a line of sight on what was going on.

“Looks like some of the locals and the cult of the Kobra are shooting it out,” Robin reported.

“I am certain Batman would have mentioned it if he knew a dangerous extremist was running Santa Prisca’s venom operation,” Aqualad pointed out.

“Agreed. And since there’s clearly no love lost between the cultists and these goons, I’m thinking Kobra came in and tossed them out. That’s why normal supply lines have been cut off.”

“Except usually a change in supplier doesn’t change downstream sales. The drug business is a business,” Jon pointed out.

“Kobra wanted super cultists. Use the venom themselves,” Kid Flash explained. “Mystery solved. Radio Bats and we’ll be home in time—”

“But these cultists aren’t on venom, even though they’re out here fighting,” Robin interrupted. “Kobra’s hoarding the stuff. We don’t leave. Not until I know why.”

“Until _you_ know why?” Kid Flash argued.

The gunfire was getting louder, then abruptly stopped as a roar of victory broke from the goons, whose leader had circled around and then ripped through the cultists with his bare hands. Then another explosion came, this one from one of Robin’s smoke bombs. “Take them down!” he yelled, dropping into the clearing himself. Kid Flash burst from hiding, ripping weapons from hands as the others ripped through the surprised locals.

“What is going on?” Aqualad asked as he continued his approach, breathing heavily as he raced through the jungle.

“Sorry, sorry, they were going to kill the guys they captured,” Robin explained as the leader collapsed under the force of Megan’s will.

“Understood.”

“We need to report in,” Jon added over the radio, still in hiding. “Megan can the bioship—"

“We aren’t going to let the League—” Robin began.

“Covert!” Jon snapped.

Robin looked down at their prisoners, not all of whom were unconscious and fell back to where they couldn’t hear him.

“We’re not letting the League take this mission away from us. We can handle it.”

“You know, I wish you’d told me these communicators had little mind control devices in them. I wouldn’t have put it in then,” Jon responded.

“What? Look I’m not trying to mind control anyone, or say I’m in charge, I’m just saying—”

“We report in. Doesn’t mean we have to pull out, even if the League tells us to. Unless there really are little mind control chips in these communicators?”

“Oh,” Robin paused.

“Report to Batman. Update him on what we’ve found, Megan,” Aqualad ordered.

She nodded and moved off, just flying directly up, rather than bothering to look for a clearing that the ship could land in. The others moved in and restrained the disarmed prisoners. Megan’s voice echoed in all their heads as Kaldur arrived. _Batman says find out where the venom is going. Stop it if possible._ She dropped back down out of the ship. Superboy flinched at the voice, despite Aqualad’s efforts to get everyone used to it, given its obvious benefits in the field.

“Well, well, well,” the leader of the goons said, when his eyes could focus again. “If it isn’t the Bat Brat and some other Junior Justice Leaguers. Come to lovely Santa Prisca to hunt snakes? There are many, many here. Plenty for all. But most of them are hiding in my factory. I can get you in. Past all the guards and traps, through my secret entrance.”

Megan knelt down by his face. “There is a secret entrance but he’s also hiding something,” her eyes glowed white as she focused.

“Ah, ah, ah, chica. Bane is not that easy. “

The glow went out. “Ugh. He’s mentally reciting football scores en Espanol. This could take a while.”

“It’s not complicated. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“You might check in the heads of his men,” Jon pointed out. Megan nodded and took a quick poke around. Unfortunately, Bane’s trust in his men did not extend to knowing a secret way in and out of his hugely profitable drug manufacturing plant.

“We take the offer. But you are coming with us. Alone,” he ordered.

Bane nodded his masked head. “Of course, ninos.”

 _Check the cultists_. Kaldur ordered Megan, telepathically. _If they know what’s going on, this gets a lot easier._

She nodded. Unfortunately, their heads were empty of almost everything except love for their sublime master. He told them to protect the factory and they did. Why was no concern of such lowly creatures as them.

Bane led them quickly through the jungle. Whatever else he was, he definitely knew this island. The overlook he took them too had an excellent view of the facility, but was well hidden from any observers within it.

Robin pulled out binoculars from his utility belt, while Superboy just looked down at the facility. For those without binoculars or supersenses, only the building and the large cleared helipad were visible.

“Look at all that product,” Robin noted, though no one else could really see it (except Superboy). “A buy is going down. But if Kobra’s not selling to the usual suspects, then—”

Bane moved away, Fenrir and Superboy shadowing him as he shoved aside a massive boulder, revealing a hidden tunnel.

“Answers are this way,” Bane said.

 _Fenrir could you take out a helicopter after it landed and passengers got out from here?_ Aqualad asked.

_No. Range is too long. But if I had the bioship, I could get close enough._

_Megan?_

_On its way._

The others moved in.

“Not coming, nino?” Bane asked.

“Someone’s got to watch our exit,” Fenrir lied easily. “Oh, and Bane?”

“Yes?”

“If you come back without them, lo voy a matar.”

Superboy glanced at him in surprise, though none of the others had heard it. It was interesting that Superboy could translate the threat. Bane laughed, then met Jon’s eyes through the mask. The man kept laughing, but it was slightly hollow now.

“Comm check,” Jon muttered into his radio as they separated. No response. _Radios are down. Whole are must be under a jamming field._

 _Understood._ Aqualad responded.

The bioship arrived a few moments later and Jon clambered in. Flying the thing was a pure joy. Good handling, strong inertial dampeners, great pickup. Admittedly it wasn’t at all aerodynamic, but given the anti-grav that wasn’t a problem. It was like an F-302, if the F-302 had better seating and could turn invisible. Moving so he had a good line of sight, but was out of any potential approached to the facility was all the flying he could justify however.

Then he had to wait. He hated waiting.

The other moved through the tunnel, with Bane carefully disarming the traps he’d placed to protect his facility until they reached the entrance to the main floor. Aqualad spoke up. “Robin, Megan, check it out.”

They moved out, Megan almost invisible under her active camouflage and Robin incredibly sneaky now that he was back indoors. _Clear around the exit._ Megan reported. _Robin’s found a computer. He’s in._

The others moved into the main area, to see the cultists gathering up entire pallets of the drug.

“It’s a massive shipment,” Kaldur noted.

“Yeah, but only the new stuff, not this,” Kid Flash tapped the box of older venom they were hiding behind.

“Huh.”

“Helicopter’s coming,” Superboy reported, a moment before Jon reported the same, telepathically.

_Megan. Robin._

_We’ve got chemical formulas, nothing on buyers._ Robin reported in, disappointed.

 _What sort of formulas?_ Kid Flash asked.

 _Dunno, something to do with Venom?_ Robin suggested.

 _Sending to you now._ Megan then sent the vision from her eyes to Wally’s. He blinked, “This is so weird,” he muttered, but he did focus in on it.

 _Venom and…the Blockbuster formula from Cadmus? Mixed correctly, Kobra’s new juice is three times stronger than venom…and permanent. How did Kobra get access to Project Blockbuster?_ Kid Flash wondered.

 _Maybe leaving the guy who was either compromised or corrupted in control of the facility while surrounded by people capable of mind control wasn’t a good idea?_ Jon asked, a bit sarcastically.

 _Our mystery buyer must also be Kobra’s supplier!_ Robin thought. _Using the cult to create a Blockbuster-venom superformula._

 _Maybe, or maybe not._ Jon pushed back on that idea. _Could just as easily be a thief did the providing._

 _Someone is using the cult. This isn’t their bag._ Robin argued.

 _Regardless, pull everything from their system._ Kaldur ended the argument.

 _Helicopter’s landing._ Jon abandoned the argument. _Looks like we’ve got Jason Vorhees meeting with Voldemort and…I dunno, a giant guy and a skinny redheaded punk girl?_

 _Moving to get an angle._ Aqualad reported and did so. _Sportsmaster. He is the buyer? Report that to the League, Jon._

_On it._

At the same moment, as Aqualad and the others were distracted by this revelation, Bane moved out of cover and began smashing his way through the guards. Instantly the group at the meet outside turned and rushed inwards. Which, in retrospect, was quite interesting. Usually an attack which wasn’t instantly identifiable as police during a drug buy would cause the parties to believe that they were being double crossed.

Jon’s report on what Batman said in response was lost as combat began.

Kid Flash focused on disarming the cultists. Their automatic weapons made them dangerous all out of proportion to their abilities. Superboy was tied up with Mammoth, the massive man who was escorting Kobra and Aqualad was guarding the way up to the room where Robin was still copying files from the rather slow computer systems.

 _Megan, we could use some help!_ Aqualad thought as the water shield he was using to defend himself was rapidly running out of, well, water.

The martian burst out of the window, still cloaked, only to catch an exploding javelin almost to the face from Sportsmaster.

 _Fenrir, take out the helicopter, then get in here._ Aqualad ordered as the martian flew back into the room, smashing half the computers to pieces.

 _I can help—_ Robin began.

 _Get the files we need!_ Aqualad ordered.

A massive explosion from outside announced the complete destruction of the helicopter and its half loaded shipment. A moment later blue bolts of electricity began to flow in from the outside, taking down cultists left and right. That stopped after an instant when Kobra ordered Shimmer to handle Jon. The resultant battle was a stalemate. But the larger battle was tipping in favor of the Team. As more and more cultists fell, Aqualad was freed to support Superboy, forcing water around Mammoth’s face. The man would have passed out in time, but Kobra himself chose to intervene at that point.

“Sometimes even a god must stoop to conquer,” Kobra said as he kicked Aqualad across the room.

Megan came out of the room again, this time she simply grabbed Sportsmaster with her telekinesis and bounced him off the floor once, twice. When she went for the third time, he dropped a flash-bang, which blinded her (and burned him as he was dropped on top of it). By the time she could see again, he was gone. Most of the cultists were down, with Kid Flash grabbing the mask off one as a souvenir.

With Robin finally freed from his work and the last of the files copied, and one of their enemies gone, the battle was tipping quite decidedly in their favor. After a moment, Kobra spoke again. “Mammoth, Shimmer, to me. Everyone else, attack.” He retreated quickly and the three of them vanished completely between one step and the next under the cover of his remaining troops, who fell quickly.

A moment later it was over. Jon made it inside and the group was whole once again.

“Well?”

“Orders are to make sure none of the super-venom gets out, then leave,” Jon said.

“Burn it, Fenrir. Superboy, take the building down on top as soon as he’s out.” Everyone was outside the main facility at this point.

“What about Sportsmaster and Kobra and his buddies?” Robin asked.

“And Bane?” Superboy grunted as Jon began using the built in weapons in his left gauntlet to vaporize boxes of the super-venom.

“They are gone. If we try to pursue, it will be our turn to run into an ambush. This was a win. Let us not overreach.”

A moment later, they left the island, with the venom factory a smoking ruin behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this is another pet peeve of mine. I understand that the show is trying very hard to keep the adults out of the picture and there’s a certain amount of distrust going on at the moment. But if you are a scout, you are only useful if you actually report in. The Team’s constant decisions not to talk to the person giving them their assignments is infuriating. Avoiding orders you would then disobey and be punished for is one thing, but they’ve made it very clear that they aren’t following the Justice League’s orders anymore. The only real excuse is they’re afraid the Justice League will swoop in and finish the job when they realize how dangerous it is.
> 
> But that’s exactly the problem that was faced in Happy Harbor. If the situation has reached the point where there’s a significant risk of death/permanent injury and you have other forces available for deployment…use them. It’s not like the League is being run ragged by all the work they have to do. This isn’t a game, it’s not important that everyone get to play, or that all your characters get the same experience so they can level up.
> 
> My other pet peeve is the extent to which the nominally covert team just wears their usual uniforms and talks freely about what’s going on in front of people they aren’t planning to kill (duh) and don’t seem to be intending to arrest (they’re covert and have no jurisdiction in Santa Prisca, nor is their mission to bring back Bane). So, I have them do that banter telepathically.
> 
> I’m not real sure about my justification for not pursuing Sportsmaster and the others. None is given in the series, but fewer people escape there, with Bane, Mammoth and Shimmer all at least temporarily down for the count. With more forces on the field, Kobra called the battle earlier. How’d he get away? Same way he did in canon. Search me what that was. Comments are always welcome.


	7. Santa Prisca, Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Batman is so rarely beaten to the punch...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue stolen from Season 1, Episodes 4 and 5.

Batman walked into the Cave, crafting his little welcome speech in his head. “A simple recon mission, observe and report. You’ll each receive a written evaluation detailing your many mistakes. Until then. Good job. No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success.” Yes, that would do it. First he’d gather them all up and—He heard raised voices, not in anger, more excitement.

“I still don’t know how Sportsmaster knew I was there!” Megan said.

“Maybe because you went through the window like the Kool-aid man?” Jon offered with a smile.

“I don’t know what that means,” Megan said, shooting Superboy a glance. He shook his head as well. She turned to the other humans. They shook their head.

Jon rolled his eyes. “Philistines, the lot of you.”

“I think he means you broke through the window instead of going out the door that was literally three feet to the left,” Robin offered. “It was pretty visible.”

“And awesome!” Kid Flash put in.

“But perhaps revealed your location,” Aqualad concluded.

Batman blinked. He’d muted his arrival announcement so that he could surprise them with their review, but he really had not expected one to be underway. Especially not so…boisterous a one. Robin seemed…happy, if tired.

“Okay. Okay. Try not to break through the human structures. I can do that.”

“Well, that was the last of my thoughts on this one. Anyone else?” Jon asked.

“No. You covered the after action review well,” Aqualad said, supportively.

“Exhaustively,” Kid Flash agreed, with a certain amount of sarcasm.

“Well, at least we destroyed the Blockbuster-Venom,” Robin said.

“Did we?” Jon asked.

“Saw you vaporize the stuff.”

“Sportsmaster got away, as did Kobra. I’d be surprised if they didn’t have samples with them. Plus as soon as they finished the work, they probably uploaded the data somewhere.”

“I checked that. No dice. Probably couldn’t get an uplink. Someone else might have copied it though,” Robin admitted.

“So we did all that for nothing?” Superboy asked.

Batman prepared to step in.

“Nah. I disagreed with the call not to pursue—”

“WE KNOW!” They all chorused at him, as this had obviously been discussed to death.

“But it may have good consequences. It obviously takes a specialized facility to manufacture the stuff. If we’d grabbed everyone, then we’d be stuck trying to get answers out of Sportsmaster, which sounds…hard, based on what you said, Kaldur.”

“Impossible, is more accurate.”

“Anyway, now the League’s got another lead on this whole mess.”

There was a moment, then Wally spoke up. “Whoever tries to start up production. If the League knew about Santa Prisca, they can probably find the new place too.”

Jon nodded and stretched. “Well, that’s it for me. I’m going to grab some sleep. Night.”

“Night.”

Jon almost walked into Batman. The superhero was really preternaturally stealthy. Jon just blinked at him. “Hello.”

“Fenrir.”

“Batman?”

“You said ‘another’ lead.”

“I did.”

“What is our first lead?”

“Could just have been a slip of the tongue. I’m awful tired.”

“Atom and Black Canary both say there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“Sounds like a good reason not to answer your question, doesn’t it?”

“Answer anyway,” Batman shifted so he was looming over the smaller man.

Jon smiled. “That’s awful intimidating. Not to me, but I’m sure other people find it awful intimidating.” He shrugged. “But we’re all on the same side, right? It’s Cadmus. You left Guardian in charge there, despite being either corrupted or compromised for a reason. Don’t know what it is, but good luck with it.”

Batman nodded.

“Night, Bats,” Jon said as he continued onward.

“Goodnight, Jack.”

“It’s Jon,” he said, without slowing down.

“Is it?”

Jon didn’t bother answering as he continued his retreat.

* * *

Superboy was nervous. He did not hide it well. Jon was walking him to his first Kaldur-ordered, Black Canary-approved social interaction. It was, of course, in Metropolis. Superboy clearly expected to run into his progenitor around every corner and kept being somewhere between relieved and disappointed when he did not.

Jon kept up a constant stream of babble, trying to distract the other superhero. It wasn’t so much that Superboy wanted him here, as he didn’t want to do this alone and the only other option was Megan, who he transparently did not want to appear weak in front of.

Superboy was the one to hear the disaster, of course. But he took off without a word, leaping away and leaving Jon to pursue desperately. He wouldn’t make it to the bridge until the danger had passed, despite ‘hitching’ a ride behind a nearby motorcyclist who was increasingly distraught by Jon’s persuasion techniques and did not stick around after Jon let go of him.

He arrived just in time to see everything going to shit, with Superman setting down a bus full of school children.

“I had that.”

“I didn’t want to take the chance. As it is, your landing could have destabilized the entire bridge.

“It didn’t.”

“But it could have. We don’t yet know the limits of your powers.”

“Well, maybe you could, you know, help me figure that out.”

“Batman’s got that covered—” Superman said before either taking a call, or faking a call and racing off with a “Sorry…Superboy, duty calls.” He took care to fly out, which ensured Superboy couldn’t follow him.

Every muscle in Superboy’s body was tense as a wire and he was glaring so hard after Superman that it was probably a good thing he lacked his progenitors laser vision.

Jon took a few steps forward and dropped a hand on the taller boy’s shoulder. “Come on.”

“I’m not going to the stupid club.”

“Didn’t think you were. But I’m starving and we’re in the middle of a city, where I don’t have to be the one to cook. Let’s grab some grub before we head back.” Jack didn’t cook, not since Charlie. Jon did cook. By choice. For his friends. That didn’t make him great at it.

Superboy glared at him.

“Looked like it had pie. You’ll like pie. I like pie. Let’s go,” he said, before the conversation could get any more inane.

The other clone let himself be dragged along by Jon, who was eventually helped by the smell of pie. To Jon’s great good fortune, the man did indeed like pie. The restaurant made very good pie. Jon gorged himself as he waited for Superboy to talk.

“Why does he hate me?” Superboy finally asked when he’d consumed approximately his body weight in pie.

“Does he?” Jon countered.

“He’s always avoiding me and when he looks at me…he wants to be anywhere else but there.”

“It’s an awkward situation. I doubt anything prepped him for suddenly have a clone pop up out of the ground,” Jon smirked to himself. “Almost like the old story, dragon teeth in the ground, Daniel loves that story…” He lost focus for a moment.

“What?” Superboy asked

“Don’t worry about. Look, you want answers to your questions, but every time you talk, things go wrong, right?”

Superboy blinked at that phrasing. “I think so…”

“Okay. Try writing him a letter.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Yeah. Put your thoughts in order and write them down. When you’re done, I’ll make sure it gets to him and that any response gets back to you. He can’t run away from a letter.”

“How?”

“Well…I mean, he could, but that would be pretty—”

“I mean, how will you get the letter to him?”

“I have my ways.”

“What?”

“Come on, Superboy, leave me a little mystery, won’t you?”

“Fine. Let’s go, I’ve got writing to do.”

“Hang on, let me get some pie to go,” Jon said, before paying the bill. It took a hefty bit out of the stipend which the DOD paid on behalf of his own DOD, but he could afford it.

* * *

“I don’t particularly enjoy playing mailman for Fenrir either, but in this case, he’s right. Figure out what your position is, put it in writing and be done with it. No one’s saying that you have to bring the boy home and introduce him to your parents,” Captain Atom said.

“You obviously haven’t been listening to Batman,” Superman said, in what on another man would have been a sulky voice.

“Though I admit I do wonder what your parents think about all this. I mean, he’s arguably more their son than yours—”

“Don’t even go there.”

“Fine, fine,” Atom spread his hands in surrender. “I’m not going to claim to know what you’re feeling and you certainly didn’t volunteer for any of this. You want to tell the kid to stay away, then do it. Just put him and yourself our of your misery, will you? This dance is going on way too long.”

Superman hung his head and for the first time in all the years Atom had known him, looked defeated. “What do I say to him? I failed him. Someone took part of me and made him and I never knew. I still wouldn’t know if a trio of sidekicks hadn’t gone rogue. He’d still be a slave there, bound and helpless and alone. And I still don’t even know who did it. For all of…this,” he waved at the station which surrounded them, “whatever did this has escaped us. I failed him before he was even…born. I have nothing to offer.”

Atom frowned slightly. “Well, now I know why you’ve never taken a sidekick of your own.”

“Oh?”

“Because you’re melodramatic enough on your own without a teenage helper.”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah. You got played. Got beaten. Happens to all of us. It sucks.”

“Thanks,” he said, bitter sarcasm filling his voice in an unnatural way.

Atom stepped forward and dropped a hand on the other superhero’s broad shoulder. “It’s also incredibly human. If that means anything coming from a bunch of radiation in a containment suit.”

There was a long pause, then Superman met his eyes. “It does,” the sarcasm was gone. “Go. I’ve got a letter to write.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I’ve screwed with the timing again here. This explains Superboy’s visit to Metropolis at the start of Episode 5 (obedient to Aqualad, he was going to join a Superman fan club, which his little encounter rather derailed). 
> 
> This may just be me, but I actually think Superman has a legitimate complaint here. This isn’t ‘illegitimate kid’ despite how the narrative acts. The only analogies I can think of are pretty offensive and incomplete. But regardless, I didn’t really love everyone acting like he owed Superboy something. Or rather, like he owed Superboy something more than what he owed everyone else. Superboy isn’t wrong to want it, but this is more one of those ‘no wrong, or right, answer’ situations, but everyone acts like Superman is wrong. 
> 
> As always, comments are welcome.


	8. Amazo, Altogether

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The target was always Ivo. This time they hit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I’m making quite a few changes to this mission, as, well, it doesn’t make a lot of sense as written. Some dialogue taken from Season 1, Episode 4.

This briefing was more interesting. The the visuals of the amazing android bashing Flash, Superman, Aquaman, the Martian Manhunter and a bunch of others around, with their own copied powers was impressive. But they were more focused on the ending, where they finally managed to rip it apart piece by piece.

“It took eight Leaguers four hours to dismantle the android,” Batman concluded as Jon looked around for popcorn.

“Android? Who made it? T.O. Morrow?” Robin asked.

“Good guess, Robin. But Red Tornado doesn’t think so. It appears to be the work of Professor Ivo.”

“Ivo? But Ivo’s dead!” Aqualad said. Jon tried to react appropriately surprised, though he had no earthly idea who Ivo was. He was busy enough trying to get up to speed on all the current (ridiculously named) threats. He didn’t have time for dead ones.

“To make certain this threat is permanently neutralized we’re sending two trucks carrying the android’s parts to two separate Star Lab facilities in Boston and New York for immediate evaluation.” Behind Batman, the screen showed the path they were to follow. “Every precaution is being taken. We’ll have four additional decoy trucks to create confusion in case Ivo or anyone tries to recover the remains. You will split into undercover teams to safeguard the two real trucks.”

“Yes! Road trip,” Kid Flash put in.

“More road trap,” Jon put in. “I can't help wondering where the gag is?”

“Fenrir? You have something to say?” Batman said

“Sorry to jump in, boss, but we’ll be here all day if you let them get a routine started. It’s obvious there’s more to this than a delivery. Flash and Superman were right there during the fight. You wanted the parts delivered someplace it’d be done by now. You’re hunting bigger game. The maker, right? The machine’s replaceable, but not the head that thought it up.”

Batman deliberately didn’t react. “Capturing Ivo if he still lives, is indeed a priority.”

“And we’re the perfect team for this. If the robot does get reassembled, it’s not getting any new powers from us, not given who it’s already copied. But we could hold out until the League got there. Not bad. Trackers in the cases of course, but you’ll probably want Robin in one and me in the other, just in case. Once Megan’s set up the telepathic bond, it works pretty well over a significant distance. Good backup if the signal gets jammed.”

Eyes flickered back and forth between Jon and Batman. That something was going on was obvious, but what was not.

Batman nodded slightly. “Reasonable additions. If he does manage to reassemble the android, contact the League immediately. Do your best to contain it and minimize collateral damage until support can arrive.”

There was some resentment at that, silenced by a glare from Kaldur. “Yes, sir.”

When the brief was over, Batman provided coordinates for the meet but ordered Jon to remain for a moment while the others prepared. “Fenrir. Do we have a problem.”

Jon cocked his head and tapped his ear.

“We’re private. Active noise cancellation. Not even Superboy can hear this.”

“Well, either way, the answer’s the same. No problem, sir.”

“And yet, I am unconvinced.”

“Very well. You shifted from lying to Robin and the others to manipulating them. It’s not a way to build trust.”

“You’re one to talk, _Jack_.”

“You know, you’re not wrong,” he walked over to the communicator and flicked through the controls. “Captain Atom!”

“Jon. What’s up?”

“I’ve been thinking about it, think it’s best the truth comes out about me not being your grandson. Any issue?”

“Nope. The League already knows, might as well tell the Team.”

“Thanks.”

He cut the comm channel. “Can you turn off the jammers?” he asked Batman. Somewhat bemusedly, the older man did.

“Hey gang, come on back before we head out.”

A few minutes later they all rendezvoused, geared up. Except for Jon, who was still in his civvies. “Brief announcement and then I will take, oh, five questions total. So don’t take more than one, or you’re stealing from someone else. I am not Captain Atom’s grandson. I am a clone from another dimension who is hiding out here under a witness exchange program with the United States government.”

There was a moment of total silence at that, though Jon did note the sudden gleam in Superboy’s eye.

“What?!” Kid Flash asked, managing to speak first.

“I am a clone from another dimension who is hiding out here under a witness exchange program with the United States government,” Jon repeated, somewhat more slowly and clearly. “Four questions left, folks.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Megan asked.

“I just did tell you. Oh, you mean originally?”

She nodded.

“Didn’t know you. Didn’t trust you.”

“Then why tell us now?” she asked.

“Do know you. Do trust you. And Megan, that’s two questions down. Only two left.”

Superboy jumped in before anyone could steal his question. “You’re a clone too?”

“Yes.” Give the boy more than that. “A somewhat defective one. I was only supposed to live for a week as part of an experiment. I got…lucky.” That was all true, but boy was it misleading. He was definitely a hypocrite for complaining about Batman manipulating people and leaving out details. But if he admitted he was actually a clone of a man in his fifties and retained all the original’s knowledge, they would probably view him as an adult and kick him off the team. He could hardly keep them alive if that happened.

“Does this change anything?” Aqualad asked in his slow, calm voice.

“Tactically? No. Operationally? No. Confidence wise? That’s up to you guys.”

“We have a mission. We will discuss this more, later,” Aqualad said, leading them away.

“Not me, I’ll be trapped in a box,” Jon replied with a smirk.

“Telepathy,” Megan countered and Jon’s face collapsed melodramatically.

A moment later they were on their way, with Robin and Jon sealed in the boxes.

 _So, you’re a clone too._ Superboy’s voice echoed in his mind.

_Yep._

_How long?_

_Less than a year._

_Who were you—_

_Can’t tell you that._

_Why not?_

_Made promises when I came here._

_Who’s Daniel?_

_Absent friend._

_Dead?_ Superboy’s voice was concerned.

 _You guys know we can all hear you, right?_ Megan asked.

_Yes. And no. He’s probably not dead at the moment._

There was a moment of silence at that phrasing.

_But you left him behind._

_No room for two of me back home._ Jon gave a mental shrug. _Isn’t there anything else people want to talk about?_

 _Like the fact that you’ve been lying to us for weeks?_ Robin asked.

_Let’s go back to my clone nature. I was cloned by a guy named Loki. Hence Fenrir._

_Huh?_ Megan and Kid Flash thought at the same time. Which Wally tried to turn into flirtation, only to fail.

 _Loki’s child. Fenrir the wolf. I get it._ Superboy was clearly pulling from implanted knowledge. _So you think of your creator as your father?_

Jon’s laughter echoed in other minds. _Oh, definitely not. I shot him._

There were gasps at that.

_Relax, he was fine._

_Still waiting on an answer._ Robin said.

Jon gave another mental shrug. _Like I said, it was an easy explanation and most of what I’ve told you isn’t stuff you’re supposed to know._

 _You lied to us!_ Robin repeated.

_And I told you the truth._

_Do you know our complaint against the League?_ Aqualad broke in.

_They told you the same cover story about their base as they told everyone else. Captain Atom was a bit straighter with me, just telling me that it was a secret._

_Exactly. They told us, their friends and partners the same cover story as everyone else. They treated us like outsiders, enemies, or civilians. Not as friends. Not as partners. So did you._

The silence stretched for a long minute there.

_Fair. I had my reasons, but…I do apologize for lying to you._

_And you won’t do it again?_ Megan asked.

_No. I absolutely will do it again if I believe it is appropriate or necessary._

_We’re a team. I don’t see how we can function if we can’t trust you._ Robin put in.

 _Didn’t you just say you don’t trust—let it go. There’s a difference between lying and betraying someone, Robin. Just like there’s a different between defeat, or error and betrayal. No one here is perfect, so let’s dial down the rhetoric, shall we?_ Jon pushed back sharply.

 _Who don’t I trust?_ Robin countered

 _Let it go, Robin. I’m not doing this now._ Jon focused his mind inward in the way Teal’c had taught him when he was trapped in the Jaffa’s body. The meditation would let him block things out until the action began.

Voices nagged in the distance, but he ignored them until the sound of battle came. That he could not ignore.

 _Monkeys! Flying monkeys with laser eyes!_ Kid Flash reported.

Robin’s laughter echoed in everyone’s mind. _That sounds like Ivo’s twisted sense of humor. I wonder what he named them? I’m sure it was an acronym for Monkey. M…Mobile? O…Organic? No that doesn’t work. Optional? Maybe go backwards? Y…what color are they?_

_Little busy, Rob._

_They’re green._ Megan put in as she helped Aqualad defend the crate Robin was hiding in.

_Well that won’t work then. Do they make a noise like a yodel?_

_What’s a yodel?_ Megan asked as she smashed robots together with her telekinesis.

 _I swear, if you yodel in my head, I will zap you as soon as we’ve got Ivo._ Jon interjected.

That bought him a moment of distraction from Robin as the others fought a losing battle to prevent the trucks from being peeled open.

 _What about Yuppies? Can I justify calling them yuppies?_ He finally asked.

There was a chorus of confusion from the clone, the atlantean and the martian. Kid Flash, clearly annoyed sent a response. _Sure. They’re very yuppy like. Little pretentious beards and everything._

_Great. E…elevating? That works, right? For flying. K is obviously for killer. N…nasty? I mean, he wouldn’t think they were nasty, but I’m okay with that. Mobile…still need an O._

_Operational?_ Jon suggested, mostly to shut him up.

_Mobile Operational Nasty Killer Elevating Yuppies!_

_Meh._ Robin was not so impressed with his own backronym as he hoped.

 _They’ve got you Robin_. _They’re flying out carrying you_. Megan said. _Don’t worry, we’re in pursuit as soon as they lose sight of us._

 _Confirmed, the other trucks were not targeted. Ivo has some way of tracking his android’s parts._ Aqualad reported.

 _Superboy, you’ve got to let them take him._ Kid Flash thought. The other clone was apparently doing far too well against their attackers.

_But…_

_I’ll be fine, big guy._

The silence stretched. _Fine._

A few moments later, Jon was airborne in one of the few ways he had never flown. Or had he? He rather thought he’d stowed away in a container to sneak onto a Goa’uld ship. As he tried to remember if that was true, the flying monkeys carried the heavy container on a not terribly smooth flight. He really hoped they didn’t drop him.

In the end, they did drop him, but no more than a foot or two. _We’re moving. On some sort of transport._ Jon noted.

 _Agree. Burst out or wait for the others?_ Robin thought.

 _Wai—Opening. Attack._ Jon shifted routes as the container opened.

His attack was less a springing leap than it was an awkward slide as his body was half asleep and very cramped after several hours wrapped around a massive invulnerable piece of metal. Still, his opponent was a tiny man who was even more transparently a geek than Daniel or Carter and with none of their combat experience. He managed to get a gauntleted hand around the man’s shoulder.

“MONQIs protect your master!” he yelled.

And Jon was swarmed by flying monkeys. Fortunately they didn’t dare use their laser eyes with Ivo in the way. Robin burst out of the other box. The smaller superhero had apparently avoided the near paralysis that was affecting Jon as explosives and batarangs flew everywhere. “They don’t have beards!” he yelled in betrayal, which just confused the hell out of Ivo.

Jon backed himself into the corner of the train car (for it was a train car), so they couldn’t get behind him and slid his knife free and up under his human shield’s throat. “Tell them to stand down,” he whispered.

“Or you’ll kill me? Hardly. The Bat Brat would crap himself, then arrest you.”

Jon frowned and slammed the knife through one of the MONQIs that was trying to sneak down to get an angle from atop a nearby crate. He left the knife there, pinning the crushed robot to the wood.

“Fine,” his voice dropped to a whisper and his free hand dropped to grab one of Ivo’s long fingered hands. “Tell them to stand down, or I will break every bone in your hands. You’ll never build anything, ever again.” His hand tightened around the smallest finger on Ivo’s hand and he began to twist.

“STOP! STOP! STAND DOWN, MONQIS!” Ivo shrieked as his face twisted in pain. The MONQIs stopped.

“Good boy,” Jon whispered as he restrained the mad scientist, before gagging him.

_Target secure. We’re on a train._

_We’ve got you. ETA two minutes_. Aqualad said.

“What did you say to him?”

“Informed him of the consequences of continued resistance.”

Robin looked the scientist over, but the man wasn’t particularly injured. With no evidence, he just went over and began poking at the robots, finally plugging his wrist-mounted computer into one. “Aw…MONQIs.”

“Hmm?”

“He didn’t even try for the full acronym.”

“Backronym.”

“What?”

“An acronym is when you take a name and abbreviate it. A backronym is when you take a word and create an acronym to match it.”

Robin stared at him.

“I know some things.”

“Weird things.”

“Yes.”

“Anyway, he went with M-O-N-Q-I. We got ‘mobile’ right, but then he went with ‘optimal’ ‘neural’ ‘quotient’ ‘infiltrators’. I like mine better, even if someone _lied_ about them being yuppies.”

“Give it a rest, Robin. You’re not going to make me feel bad about not trusting a bunch of strangers. All you’re doing is making me regret deciding to tell you the truth.”

There was a tense moment, which was broken by the arrival of both teams a moment later. “Good work,” Aqualad said. “We’ll meet Batman at the platform in Gotham. He’ll take Ivo into custody.”

The next half-hour was spent awkwardly sitting around and waiting for the train to arrive and making what small talk they were comfortable with Ivo hearing. Finally, Batman arrived (they didn’t get off the train, but rather reboarded the cloaked bioship and made their escape unnoticed. Kid Flash did snatch up one robot MONQI eye as a souvenier.

* * *

The AAR for the Amazo operation was entirely straightforward. They’d actually done quite well this time. No major errors. Though Robin did take the opportunity to more publicly ask Jon what he’d done to get Ivo to call off the robots.

The clone shrugged. “Told him that if he didn’t I’d crush his hands, then put a bit of pressure on them.”

Robin blinked. “And that worked? I heard you threaten his life and he didn’t fold.”

“If you want to scare someone, you need to understand them. He wasn’t scared of death. Never being able to build anything again, on the other hand…” Jon shrugged again and got up, stretching after so long sitting and yawned. “If we were a little smarter, we’d crush them anyway. Or just kill him. That man’s dangerous.”

“We do not kill people,” Aqualad said.

“I know the rules of engagement, boss. And I’ll follow them. Even if I think they’re stupid.” He nodded to the others and then headed off to bed.

“Does anyone else wonder if Jon is…” Kid Flash’s question drained off as Superboy glared at him.

“He is an ally, who has been nothing but loyal,” Aqualad said. Which was true, but dodged the question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jon served in black ops for years before joining the Stargate program. He is, in many ways, not a good person. In others he is. But contrasted with the black-and-white morality of Young Justice…he’s awful grey.
> 
> As always, comments are welcome.


	9. Infiltrations Galore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Protection is easier if you keep the protectee FAR away from the danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m once again making some changes to the mission. This one is less bad, as they’re set up for it by Red Arrow/Speedy and don’t have full operational control. Plus they’re reacting which, as Black Canary has told us, sort of sucks. Some dialogue taken from Season 1, Episode 6.

Everyone except poor Wally, enjoyed a day at the beach. They were also extraordinarily vigorous and competitive. Jon had his own competitive instincts, but he reserved them for things besides beach volleyball. Instead he mostly found a sunny spot where he could lie still and bask. It was nice. Except when the sand worked its way deep enough that he started having flashbacks to all the many, many times he’d been in horrible situations in the desert. Then he’d go into the water and cleaned himself off, but then he returned to his spot, claiming that the teams were currently even and he preferred to lounge.

The plan was to relax for the entire day, but at about two, they were summoned back to the Cave. Apparently there were many people already there and more on the way.

Wally did finally join them, all dressed up for a day at the beach when school was out. That made him _very_ inappropriately dressed for the meeting with Batman, Green Arrow and Green Arrow’s new protégé Artemis (and didn’t that name just make Jon twitch a bit, mythological gods drew an almost instinctive response from him these days).

“Recognized. Kid Flash. B-0-3.”

“The Wallman is here! Let’s get the party st--” he said, before tripping over his beach umbrella in an almost literal pratfall, sending beach toys everywhere.

“Wallman, huh? I love the uniform,” Artemis’s sarcasm was so thick that Jon decided he had a kindred spirit. “What exactly are your powers?”

“Uh, who’s this?”

“Artemis. Your new teammate,” she said bluntly. Definitely a kindred spirit. Though admittedly, he wouldn’t be caught dead in her midriff bearing (and mostly unarmored) outfit. On the other hand, he also wouldn’t have worn Red Arrow’s vest and bracer combination. In fact, looking around at the entire group, he was the only person with any sense of style amongst the entire gaggle of people. Still, best to keep that thought to himself. Otherwise they might steal his look.

“Kid Flash. Never heard of you.”

“She’s my new protégé,” Green Arrow volunteered.

“What happened to your old one?” Kid Flash asked.

As if to answer him the computer announced, “Recognized. Speedy. B-0-7.”

“Well, for starters, he doesn’t go by Speedy anymore. Call me Red Arrow,” the man said as he walked out of the Zeta tube.

“Roy, you look—” Green Arrow began.

“Replaceable.”

“It’s not like that. You told me you were going solo.”

“So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?”

“Yes, _she_ can,” Artemis cut in.

“Who are you?” Kid Flash repeated.

“I’m his niece.” “She’s my niece.” Artemis and Green Arrow said in what was definitely not an over-rehearsed cover story.

“Another niece?” Robin asked, giving Megan a look.

“Could be worse, could be another grandkid,” Jon said with a smirk at Robin’s irritation.

“But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team and we have no quota on archers,” Kaldur cut in.

“And if we did, you know who we’d pick,” Kid Flash cut in.

“Nice,” Jon muttered, but Artemis could defend herself. “Whatever, Baywatch. I’m here to stay.”

“You came to us for a reason,” Kaldur pushed.

“Yeah, a reason named Dr. Serling Roquette,” Red Arrow explained.

“Nano-robotics genius and claytronics expert at Royal University in Star City!” Robin said.

“A nerd. Right,” Jon agreed. “Why do we care?” he covered up the internal wince at the mention of the tiny robots that had once almost aged him to death, not to mention the business with the replicators. s

“She vanished two weeks ago,” Robin added, bringing up files on the woman on the big screen.

“Abducted two weeks ago by the League of Shadows,” Red Arrow corrected him.’

“Whoa. You want us to rescue her from the Shadows?” Robin asked. Kid Flash and Megan also seemed impressed at that idea.

“Hardcore,” Kid Flash agreed, giving Robin a fist bump.

“I already rescued her. Only one problem, the Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon.” It was Red Arrow’s turn to bring up some images of creepy robots on the screen. “Doc calls it the Fog. Comprised of millions of microscopic robots. Nanotech infiltrators, capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But its true purpose isn’t mere destruction. It’s theft. The infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the Shadows. Providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting edge science and tech.”

“Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking. Yeah. Sounds like the Shadows,” Artemis agreed, which wasn’t at all suspicious.

“Like you know anything about the Shadows,” Wally snorted. “Who are you?” he yelled when he got a glare from her in response.

“Roquette’s working on a virus to render the fog inert.”

“But if the Shadows know she can do that…” Robin’s voice trailed off.

“They’ll target her. Right now she’s off the grid. I stashed her at the local high school’s computer lab.”

“You left her alone?” Green Arrow asked.

“She’s safe enough for now,” Red Arrow stated.

“You couldn’t just stick a bag on her head and bring her here?” Jon interjected before Green Arrow could reply.

“And reveal your secret clubhouse? Hardly,” Red Arrow’s voice was acid.

“I could—” Green Arrow began, but Batman dropped a hand on his shoulder.

“Fine. Boss, permission to go get the doctor and stick her in our lab? Think she’ll probably work faster if she’s got something a bit oomphier than a high school computer lab,” Jon suggested.

“Do it,” Kaldur ordered.

“Then my work here is done,” Red Arrow began.

“No it’s not. You’re coming with me to run introductions. Don’t want her running off thinking I’m an assassin,” Jon countered.

Red Arrow gave him a look up and down. “You’ve certainly got the right color palette for it. Fine.”

They headed out. “Recognized. Speedy—”

“That’s Red Arrow. B-0-7. Update.”

“Recognized. Fenrir. B-0-6.”

They moved quickly towards the high school. “So, you got the nerd, but not the weapon,” Jon said.

“I raided a Shadow stronghold, singlehanded and rescued a prisoner, can you say the same?”

“Nope. Wouldn’t want to either. Running solo ops is a good way to make mistakes, or die.”

“Maybe for you ‘Fenrir.’ But you’re brand new to the game.”

“But this isn’t a game, Arrow. And if you’d brought along support, then we wouldn’t be having to clean up your mess.”

“Clean up my mess? Without me you’d have no scientist _and_ the Shadows would have the weapon.”

“Congratulations, you are not actively detrimental to the world. Want a cookie and a gold star? Sorry, I don’t grade on a curve. You’re so eager to prove yourself that you’ve lost sight of the job.”

“ _I’ve_ lost sight of the job? I’ve been doing this since I was fourteen years old. Come talk to me when you’ve got a year or two under your belt.”

“Seriously? You want to make that argument to me? Isn’t that exactly what the Justice League—”

“Don’t mention the Justice League. You don’t know anything about them.”

“Nope. But I know they don’t do half a job then dump the rest off on us.”

A muscle jumped in Red Arrow’s jaw and Jon tensed, just in case the kid swung on him, but instead he relaxed. “I’m always happy to help Kaldur and the rest of my friends.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Just so we’re clear, that doesn’t include you, Fenrir.”

“Glad to hear that too.”

It was a good thing they’d finished their argument, because they’d arrived and arguing like angry teenagers in front of a scared former hostage was not a nice thing to do.

“Oh, good,” she said as they came in and her initial panic wore off. “Now there’s two of you.”

“Rather more than that,” Red Arrow said.

“Pull the work you’ve done. We’re relocating you to a safe facility,” Jon said.

“Oh, thank god.” It took her a minute to copy the work she’d done onto a disc. “Does it have more up to date computer systems?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Jon admitted.

“Excellent. Let’s go.”

They only had to put a bag over her head (Jon had actually brought a head-bag to Red Arrow’s moderate distress) for the last little bit before they arrived. She still wasn’t happy, but went along with it. Then Jon escorted her to where she could work. As she got down to it, she stopped him before he left.

“Even if I do this, the Shadows will never stop hunting me, will they? I mean, if I disable the fog, they’ll just want me to make more.”

“They’ll want that,” Jon smiled at her, which was entirely invisible behind his mask. “But if you want, I know a place you can go where they can never find you. Think of it like the ultimate witness protection. All right?”

She actually looked reassured and got back to work.

On his way out, Jon ran into Red Tornado. Well, found him would be more accurate. “Red Tornado, can I ask a favor?”

“Given my previous failure, I am inclined to acquiesce to any reasonable request you make,” the robot said, obviously still stinging from Jon’s previous rebuke. The android had been extremely busy of late working to repair the damage done to the town.

“Was that a yes?”

“Yes.”

“Can you keep an eye on the doctor? We’re about to deploy. I don’t think she’s secretly a shapeshifter, or assassin, or mind controlled or something, but just in case.”

“I will ensure her security and the security of the Cave from her.”

By the time Jon made it back to the briefing room, Kaldur had a plan.

“Robin can locate the fog. However, the Shadows will know when we do so and where we are. We will do this from an abandoned warehouse in Happy Harbor, which is now secretly owned by the Justice League. As soon as the location is identified, Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis will travel to that location and disable the fog. If the doctor finishes her work in time, via the virus, if not then via the arrest of whoever has the fog. In order to split the opposition, the remainder of the team will remain in the warehouse. Megan will be disguised as Dr. Roquette and keep up the trace,” Megan did a little spin, shapeshifting as she went. “I will be the last line of defense. Superboy will be internal security. Fenrir and Red Arrow will be perimeter security. Questions?”

Heads shook in response to that. They moved out instantly.

As they headed out (after giving Kid Flash a literal minute to change, which time limit he beat) Kaldur told Megan to link them up, as the Shadows were excellent at detecting radio communications. _e_ _veryone online?_

_This is weird._ Artemis noted.

_To you._ Kid Flash countered.

_Oh, come on!_

_Do you always complain when someone’s helping you?_

_Pot. Kettle. Have you met?_

_Hey, hey, I do not need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the Team._

_That’s so not on me._

_Focus._ Kaldur interjected.

_She started it._

_How ‘bout I just switch places with Red Arrow? Then the speedster can be on the same team as his boyfriend._

_Mission assignments are final. As soon as we have a location—_

_I have a location._ Robin cut in, overriding Kaldur’s thought.

_Head out._

_Will do. Relax Wally, we’ve all got to work together on this._

_I don’t see why. We can handle this._

_You know, I can hear you._ Artemis snapped.

_Oh, we know._

_I am trying to listen._ Red Arrow put in. _With my outside ears._

_Hate to agree with the arrogant archer, but hush up._ Jon added.

* * *

It took surprisingly little time for the League of Shadows to send people into Happy Harbor. Robin and the others were long gone by then, on their way to Philadelphia. Unfortunately, there was no Zeta Tube in the area, so they were stuck going by bioship.

Red Arrow was on perimeter patrol while Jon stayed up high and kept his be-goggled eyes out for any thermal signatures as night had mostly fallen and this part of Happy Harbor was still not recovered from Mr. Twister’s attack. Unfortunately, the Shadows were known to have counters to most forms of night-vision. But there was no counter for the good old fashioned mark 1 human ear. Which was what led Red Arrow around back. Unfortunately, it was Black Spider, luring him away, then using his super-suit to leap to the top of the warehouse, avoiding the archer altogether. Or would have, if the archer hadn’t been, well, an archer. The explosive arrow sent him tumbling back into the trees. Red Arrow moved in pursuit.

At the same time Jon detected movement from the front. A moment after Red Arrow reported in, Jon did as well, though his report was less precise.

_Creepy lady in a mask and overcompensating Captain Hook coming in the front, moving to intercept._

He rained electricity down upon them (somewhat lamenting that he wasn’t allowed to use plasma, that probably would have finished things instantly). A few hits landed, but they still scattered. A moment later the hook-handed man launched his ridiculously oversized hook up towards Jon, then, when it missed and embedded in the roof, used the chain attached to it to reel himself up as the woman entered the building. 

_One in. One up here with me. Good luck Superboy._

_Don’t need luck._

The warehouse was very large. Just finding each other was going to be tricky, let alone them finding ‘Dr. Roquette.’ But Jon didn’t have any thought to spare as his own opponent attacked quickly and remarkably skillfully given his absurd weapon choice. Jon returned fire, dodging the odd projectile. But whoever had trained the man was good. Neither of them hit and they both found some cover.

_Lost the Spider. Circling back._ Red Arrow reported.

After a few exchanged shots, Jon used his brain.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?”

The grim looking man responded with a hook shot that punched through the bit of roof Jon was hiding behind and narrowly missed his face, retracting it instantly.

"How do you control that thing?” Jon asked.

The man responded with another shot, but this time Jon was waiting and pumped electricity from his right gauntlet directly into the metal that was clearly wired into the man’s body. Apparently he had not put anything nonconductive between him and his implant, so the electricity continued right through him. For good measure Jon pumped a few extra shots into him. People on this world had a shockingly high tolerance and the modified Zat was far less effective than he’d hoped. Also, the man’s suit had to be insulated. But he did finally pass out. Jon moved forward and did his best to restrain his prisoner with the two sets of cuffs he had. It was…difficult given the giant hook.

_One down. Moving to seal the front—negative more movement. Looks like I’ve got Mulan coming up next. A sword? Seriously? Firing._

_Wait!_ Aqualad said, but the shots were already fired.

The range was fairly long, but he’d at least managed to hit the masked woman once before they scattered, it just wasn’t enough to slow the assassin. Insulated suits of some sort. His first shot was dead on target, but she just dodged.

That shouldn’t have been possible. His next two were less well aimed, but she casually took out a blade and blocked one of them. That was even less possible.

_Uh-oh. This is going to suck._

He continued to fire as she calmly advanced. To absolutely no effect. Her slow advance was quite intimidating, but did give him time to move away from where his prisoner was. No need to make it incredibly obvious, or let her get an ally back if he could avoid it.

_Megan, show me what Jon sees._ A moment passed as Jon continued to pour useless fire at her. _Jon. That is Lady Shiva. You cannot defeat her._

_Shiva?_ Red Arrow asked. _If we take her down the League will have to—Shit. I’ve got a hole in the back wall. Spider got past me somehow, he’s inside._

_Superboy, assist Jon._

_AH!_

_Superboy!_ Megan yelled.

_Remain calm, Megan. Nothing the League has can hurt him._ Aqualad said.

At that point, the woman parkoured up to the top of the thirty foot tall warehouse, quite casually deflecting three shots as she went. Which was just absurd, given the attention needed to ascend in that fashion.

Jon stopped shooting and slid his knife free. “Lady Shiva, I presume?” he asked politely. Though he was an impatient man, he had at this point in his life had a truly ridiculous amount of experience dealing with warriors. And as Daniel liked to say, you could never go wrong with courtesy.

"Indeed,” she bowed very shallowly. “I regret to say that I do not know your name.”

“Fenrir,” he said without hesitation. This was not a woman he wanted to know his real name.

She smiled slightly. “You must be skilled, to have defeated the Hook,” she waved to where the other man was restrained. It was concealed by one of the rises on the roof and couldn’t possibly have been visible to her, except maybe for a split second on that last leap before she landed?

“More luck than skill, I think.”

“Then this will be a brief bout.”

She didn’t bother drawing her blade as she approached. Jon considered his armor and the plasma his left gauntlet could throw. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me what your superpowers are?” he asked.

“I do not have any.”

“Damn.”

She raised a curious eyebrow.

“Well, getting my ass kicked is going to be embarrassing enough, assuming I survive. I was sort of hoping I could use your superpowers as an excuse.”

“Pride has been the downfall of many warriors,” she agreed. “Are you prepared?”

“If I say no, do I get extra time?”

“How long do you need?”

“Fifty, sixty years?”

“Alas, I am in something of a hurry tonight.”

“Then, sure, I’m ready.” He raised the knife and she attacked.

He lost the knife in the first instant, he honestly didn’t know how. The last time he’d been this disoriented in a fight, a shock grenade had just gone off, right after a flashbang had gone off, while free and enslaved Jaffa were fighting all around him.

He reacted automatically, defending as best he could. Using a few Jaffa techniques, he even managed to strike back once. It didn’t hurt her, but did push her and thereby push her attack to even greater ferocity. His armor helped somewhat, but a series of powerful blows left the transparent part of his gas mask a mess of scars and starring which almost blinded him.

That was what saved him. She stepped back.

“Would you like to remove your mask so we can continue?”

Anonymity would not save him if he died on this rooftop. He pulled the mask off and tossed it aside.

“Now, are you ready to attack me with whatever is hidden in your left bracer?” she asked.

“Sorry. Can’t. Orders.” _Where is everyone_?

The chorus of responses confirmed no one was beneath him. There had been other messages, but he hadn’t heard them in the confusion.

“Ah, yes, we are all bound by the dictates of duty and honor.”

“You know, you and a friend of mine would really get alone.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Or you’d kill each other.”

“That has been the pattern of my life, yes.” She agreed. “We resume. Do try to use more of those unusual maneuvers. They are quite unique and interesting.”

As she reached him, Jon lowered his left hand in an unusual posture and fired the swarm of plasma rounds into the flimsy roof beneath his feet. A ten foot hole opened in it and he plummeted through, landing painfully on his back on a shipping crate only fifteen feet down.

“Ow.” He looked up. She was still on the rooftop, having somehow leapt back in the time it took him to fire and fall. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. You are injured. We will continue this, with your unusual style, later. I must kill Dr. Roquette. Thank you for the match,” she said before leaping over the hole and continuing along the roof.

_Well, you were right Kaldur. I did not win that fight. She’s heading to you._

_Are you all right?_ Kaldur asked.

Jon slowly got up. _Bruises. And a cracked rib. And a broken nose. And a concussion._

_I’ll—OW!_ Superboy’s anger was cut off by another explosion.

_Cheshire is somewhere in here. Spider’s keeping Superboy and Red Arrow busy._

_I can—_ Megan began.

_No. Our only chance against Lady Shiva is your telekinesis and total surprise. Grab her and do not let go. Drethm—_ the Atlantean curse was cut off by a sharp exclamation.

_Cheshire is here. She’s fighting Aqualad._ Megan reported.

_Moving to support._ Jon limped slowly in that direction as he’d twisted something painfully in his leg clambering down from the crate.

By the time he got there, the fight was almost over, with four darts sticking out of Aqualad’s body. “Only mostly immune to poison,” Cheshire said with a vicious grin as she kicked the swaying man in the head. He went down like a sack of straw. Four shots to the back dropped her as well.

_Black Spider is down. We’re coming_. Superboy thought.

At that moment, the ceiling caved in above them and Lady Shiva dropped in. Somehow she had cut through the ceiling in such a way that wood had fallen on Megan, but nothing else in the room. Her blade swung in a smooth, unstoppable arc towards ‘Dr. Roquette’s’ throat, too fast for Megan to stop, even if she hadn’t been stunned, only to stop on its own. “The martian.” Megan still looked like Dr. Roquette, but that apparently wasn’t enough. “The doctor was never here,” she stated from behind Megan, where she had landed, keeping the blade against the side of the younger woman’s neck, using his teammate as a shield against Jon and the audibly approaching others.

“Nope,” Jon admitted.

“Then this entire exercise has been futile. I congratulate you on your deception. The Sensei is not easily fooled.”

“Thank you? If you’d like to leave, there’s a back exit that way. Or you can apparently just cut your way through walls,” Jon added.

“I am tempted to battle all of you, just for the experience,” she said as the others entered the room.

“Then come out from behind Megan and do it!” Superboy challenged the woman, his voice a low growl as he took in the hostage and Jon’s injuries.

“Oh, no. It’s so hard to knock out a martian and they have all sorts of methods to cheat. Infuriating the League by murdering their children is not worth my time at this point, so I think not.”

“We’re taking you in,” Red Arrow said, voice tense with the strain of holding his arrow ready.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“You let Megan go. We let you go,” Jon offered.

“We can’t let her get away! The League—”

“You chose not to be part of this team Red Arrow. This is my call with Kaldur out of commission.” That was only very barely plausible, but Red Arrow didn’t know that. Neither did Lady Shiva.

“I won’t let you—”

“Do we have a deal?”

Shiva shook her head. “I need more than that. I go and I take Cheshire with me. She’s the only one I could carry easily anyway.”

“You can’t be serious. I won’t let you take this away from—” Red Arrow began.

Jon shot him. Three times.

Megan and Superboy stared at him.

“Deal,” he kept her covered as she released Megan, who finally dropped her shapeshifting and moved towards Cheshire. _Hold her Megan._

_But you said—_

_D_ _o it._

She did it. As the woman’s impassive face twisted, he saw betrayal and absolute rage there. Then he shot her. A lot more than three times. Eventually she passed out and the managed to get restraints on her. Lots of restraints. Indeed, Jon kept requesting more restraints, on the theory that he never, ever wanted to fight this woman again. Megan was taking care of Aqualad, while Superboy paced around feeling furious with everything. He was unwilling to leave the others, even to retrieve the Hook and Black Spider.

Unfortunately, Cheshire woke up at that point, dropped a flashbang and ran for it.

No one pursued her.

_Robin. Report._ Jon finally managed to remember the other team.

_Philadelphia was a bust. Star labs was already hit, but we’re following the van the fog is in. We’ll take the Shadow and disable the fog as soon as we’ve got a clear spot._

_Hurry it up. Cheshire got away. She’ll be reporting in as soon as she finds a radio that hasn’t been hit with enough electricity to fry an egg._

_I don’t think that’s how—_ Wally began.

_Got a shot. Popping a wheel,_ Artemis interrupted him. The rest of that battle was a foregone conclusion, with one Shadow outnumbered three-to-one.

The fog was disabled. Now there was just the cleanup to deal with. He looked at the still unconscious Roy. Apparently his suit was less insulated then Cheshire’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm… I’m hitting the Jon is not so nice button twice in a row here. Sorry about that. Comments always welcome. I threw in Lady Shiva because it was fun. And to deal with the fact that, frankly, very few of the Shadows are a believable threat to Superboy and Megan. Lady Shiva only sort of is. The show loves its badass normals, which is fine, so do I, but it tends to undercut its superpowered characters to puff them up. I'm trying to avoid that.
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


	10. Interregnum, the Second.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon takes Dr. Roquette to a new home. And receives news. Fortunately, Wonder Woman is there to save the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I make a slight change to Stargate canon here, as there’s no reason in the world for them to actually let Nirrti go at the end of Rite of Passage. Also references to death, drunkenness, mourning, implied rape, torture and a bunch of horrible stuff.

Red Arrow did not take being knocked unconscious well.

In fact, he woke up swinging. Since Superboy was carrying him, this only resulted in some bruised knuckles. “What—Where am I?”

“Halfway back to the Cave,” Superboy said, giving him a not terribly friendly look. The punch hadn’t hurt, but it was the principle of the thing.

“What happened?”

“I shot you,” Jon said from out front. Aqualad was still unconscious, and Megan was levitating him, leaving Jon the only one with both hands free. The League had picked up Shiva, Hook and Black Spider, but left the Team to make their own way home. Though Black Canary had been good enough to check on Aqualad and Jon. She also set Jon’s nose, but he wasn’t sure that was her being good. It might also have been her getting back at him for being a dick. There certainly hadn’t been any anesthetic, not like good ol’ doc Fraiser back home.

“What? You let Shiva go?” Red Arrow squirmed loose of Superboy’s grip. “Do you know what—”

“We caught Shiva.”

“But you—”

“Lied. Then shot her, after I shot you. Mask Lady did get away though. She is fast.”

Red Arrow blinked at that.

The rest of the trip passed in relative quiet, with Red Arrow departing as soon as he was at a Zeta Tube.

Robin, Kid Flash and Artemis were already back at the base. Fighting together had helped a bit, but Kid Flash was pouting at the lack of a good souvenir until Megan offered Jon his, very broken, gas mask back. He declined and Kid Flash happily claimed it as the souvenir for this mission.

Jon himself could barely take the time to visit Dr. Roquette and let her know everything was all right before he had to crash. The trip to medical to let Robin (as the only one trained in field medicine) and Superboy (who was being somewhat annoyingly overprotective) wrap his ribs and check to make sure there weren’t any more serious problems almost caused him to fall asleep in the chair. There was just enough energy to call Captain Atom and set things up before he passed out.

Aqualad was awake before Jon was.

He was also unthrilled by the whole ‘shot Red Arrow’ thing. As were Robin and Kid Flash when they heard about it. Artemis seemed to find it hilarious however. Superboy didn’t care and Megan mostly seemed grateful he’d gotten the crazy woman with the sword away from her neck.

But the three who’d been friends with Speedy in the old days did want to talk about it. Fortunately for Jon, a message was waiting for him when he woke up. Everything was worked out for Dr. Roquette’s little trip. So he would be able to put off that wonderful discussion until tempers had cooled.

In a moderate surprise, it was not Captain Atom who arrived to join them, but Wonder Woman. And she came bearing a letter. The second that Superman had written back to Superboy. The other clone did not discuss what was in the first, or what he should write in his response, but he had seemed a bit happier since. Jon was still playing messenger (as was apparently whatever Leaguer headed in his direction) which was a bit crazy. But whatever worked, right? And giving them plenty of time and plenty of distance from each other seemed to be working.

Dr. Roquette practically melted at the sight of the Amazon. As Jon’s own reaction (damned teenage body) was almost the reverse, given her rather minimalistic outfit, he was grateful for the full body-armor he was wearing.

“Dr. Roquette, I regret the necessity of this. You have been briefed on what you will be giving up?”

“Yes, Wonder Woman.” The usually abrasive intellectual was almost entirely gone, replaced with a rather unfortunate breathlessness.

“Good. We will escort you through to your new home.”

“Thank you so much. It’s an honor. I never imagined that I would be escorted—” her eyes widened in horror. “Guarded by you,” she blushed a brilliant red and shut up.

“You give me too much praise, Doctor.” Wonder Woman nodded to her, then turned to Jon.

“Fenrir. Lost your mask?”

“Lady Shiva broke it, after she broke one of my ribs, but before she broke my nose.”

“That does sound like Lady Shiva. You should pick your enemies with more care.”

“Where would be the fun in that?”

“That does sound like _Fenrir_ ,” she concluded. Though they didn’t know each other well, she clearly knew the mythical source of the name and the mythical creature it referenced. At least, he hoped it was mythical. It would be awkward if not. “Shall we?”

The Zeta Tube took them out near the remote Army base where the Quantum Mirror was stored. Their credentials got them inside and then down a very, very deep elevator shaft. Finally they arrived before the quantum mirror and the cover was removed.

Dr. Roquette stared at the rippling surface in fascination and asked about thirty questions regarding its functions and abilities. Jon responded by staring at her blankly and missing his mask. “Lady, I shoot people for a living. You’ll have to ask someone else. They’ve got all the nerds you could possibly want on the other side. Foremost experts in crazy alien mirrors and tiny robots alike.”

“It’s not very encouraging that you refer to nanotechnology as ‘tiny robots,’” she complained.

“You should hear what I call—” and Jon pushed her through the mirror.

“Fenrir,” Wonder Woman’s voice was disapproving.

“What? You can’t tell me you really wanted to hear technobabble. Plus, the mirror’s only open at specific times. We’re in a hurry,” he matched word to deed and stepped through himself.

The Security Force (SF) airmen on the other side were armed, but no longer hazmat suited up. There was a fairly high level of certainty that neither side was going to pass along any serious contagion (unlike the early days of the program) but Dr. Roquette was still going to go through a fun medical exam before being released into the wild. The guards were checking her against the picture that had been sent last night, along with info on Jon and Wonder Woman.

Jon, however, needed no introduction. As soon as he entered the room, all the SFs not directly involved with Dr. Roquette came to attention and gave him a sharp salute. Not strictly proper under the circumstances, but appreciated. He returned it and noticed that one of the crowd was not an SF.

It was Master Sergeant Siler, down from the SGC.

“It’s Master Sergeant Siler, come down from the SGC just to visit little old me?” Jon asked.

The tech nodded as he ambled over. “Yes, sir. General Hammond wanted to send someone higher up, but things are a bit tense over there right now.”

“Team’s all right?”

“Yes, sir. They’re all fine.”

“Good, good.” Dr. Roquette was heading out. He raised his voice and called to her back. “Don’t worry doctor, the autopsy tools are only for use on aliens.” He paused for a moment. “From space, not other dimensions. That’s right Siler, isn’t it?”

“You’re a bad man, sir.” Siler raised his voice as well. “There are no autopsy tools, in medical, ma’am. Ignore him.”

“You know, I am still a colonel,” Jon pointed out as she hustled away from the craziness.

“Yes, sir. Were you beaten up by someone who didn’t know that, or just didn’t respect the rank?”

“Both.”

“Did you deserve it, sir?”

“Not at the time, but like five minutes later, definitely.”

“Sounds about right, sir.”

“But you do know I’m a colonel, right Siler?”

“Except you aren’t allowed to remain on planet until the Chinese government cools off. Which doesn’t appear to be happening. Ever.”

“It wasn’t my fault that everything blew up. There were alien infiltrators on the ground!”

“Which would have been an excellent argument if you hadn’t vaporized them, sir.”

“I still think I should get credit for saving all those people.”

“Credit in heaven, yes sir. But the Chinese are still a bit miffed about the destruction of a major tourist attraction.”

There was a pause. “Siler?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Did General Hammond brief you on how to have this argument with me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is this being recorded right now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“When I’m allowed out of Area 51, my revenge is going to be _legendary_.”

“I look forward to it, sir.”

“I hate to interrupt this reunion, but I’m actually not just here as an escort,” Wonder Woman interjected at that point, which drew a few sniggers from the SFs, until a flat glare from Siler shut them up.

“Yes, ma’am. If you’ll come this way, we can begin the tests to see if you retain your abilities in this dimension,” the senior SF said.

“I can already tell you, I do not. I cannot fly and my speed is greatly reduced. Strength, or durability I cannot determine.”

“We have a whole battery of tests for you, ma’am. If you’ll step this way—“

“Or, if you don’t want to spend three hours being watched by leering SFs, we could just shoot you with a Zat. You have your powers, no harm. You don’t, you’ll be unconscious for like thirty seconds, tops.”

She looked back and forth between the two of them. “I will trust you, Fenrir.”

“Terrible idea, but it’ll be fast,” Jon noted. The SFs argued, but were outranked.

A moment later Wonder Woman woke up on the floor. Jon was clutching his ribs through his armor.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Well, he shot you,” Siler pointed at the SF. “Then he tried to catch you, but apparently forgot he was injured.”

“Thank you, Siler,” Jon muttered in a pained voice.

Siler extended a hand to Diana, who used it to pull herself up. “You all right?” she asked.

Jon nodded.

“That is an unpleasant experience.”

“Definitely stings. You taste copper?”

“Indeed.”

“Come on, there’s a commissary this way. Probably the only place on either planet that’ll let me get beer.”

“Actually, we have a surprise on that front,” Siler said with a smile and led them to a meeting room.

“You truly are a colonel. It is…difficult to ignore your body,” Wonder Woman noted when a lull developed.

“Well, thanks, but let’s try to keep it professional while on base,” he teased.

She laughed. “How old are you, in truth?”

“The body? Less than a year. The mind? Fifty-one.”

“That is…disconcerting. Even for me.”

“Weird is what it is.”

“No disputing that, sir,” Siler agreed. “Weird is what you are.”

“Don’t think that’s what I said,” Jon noted, though Wonder Woman’s laughter made it hard to hear.

* * *

“Well, at least I won’t have to get a physical. It’s about that time again, right? I swear Janet always puts her hands in the freezer before I head over for mine.”

Siler’s face froze.

“I’m sorry sir, I assumed you’d been told.”

“Told what?”

Siler licked his lips, then jerked to attention, taking refuge in formality. “Sir, Major Janet Fraiser, Chief Medical Officer of Stargate Command died on P3X-666 approximately six weeks ago.”

Jon’s knees folded and he landed in the chair behind him with a loud thump.

“What the hell was she doing offworld?”

“There was a medical emergency and a Jaffa ambush, sir.”

“Oh, god, Cassie,” he looked up at Siler.

“She’s fine. She’s with Carter. Everything is under control, sir.”

“Shit.”

“Yes, sir.”

At that moment several airmen brough in a giant box of Heineken, with a note from Colonel Jack O’Neill, saying that after some review it had been concluded that Jon was, in fact, old enough to drink.

Their boisterous request to share in the largess was completely ignored. Before they could repeat the request, Diana stepped forward and waved them out. She might lack her powers here, but she still cut an imposing figure and they withdrew.

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“No, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“Not your fault. Thank you, Siler. Dismissed.”

Diana sat down opposite him. “A comrade?”

“A friend. A damn good one. Saved my life…I don’t even know how many times. Never hurt anyone. Only time she even took up a weapon was to protect her daughter. Succeeded too. Kept _her_ kid alive. Kept me alive. I’m still here,” he picked up one of the beers blindly, drained it in one go and picked up another.

“Indeed. She saved many?” Diana took one of the drinks herself. More to keep it out of his hands and get him to do something besides drink the entire box himself than because she wanted it. Still, she twisted the top off and took a sip.

“Yep. Don’t think she ever killed anyone either. Nah, I know she never killed anyone,” a horribly false smile crossed his face, “I saw her down at the range a few times. She could never hit a target. Didn’t have that in her.” He drank half the beer in his hand.

She could see it coming from around the corner. “Not like you?” she asked, as she continued to drink it. It honestly didn’t taste very good, but she knew her own capacity (infinite) and every bit that was in her wasn’t in his teenaged body.

“Damn straight. I’ve killed plenty of people. Some I regret. Some I don’t. But I’m still here. Hell, there’s two of me. And no Fraiser’s. How’s that fair?”

“It’s not,” she took another of the beers. “Shall we descend into the pit of banality that is ‘the world’s not fair?’”

“Let’s not. I hate cliches,” he finished the beer and reached for another.

“So how did you meet her?” She kept drinking. At first she didn’t remember that her powers, including superhuman endurance didn’t work here. By the time it occurred to her, the alcohol itself was fuzzing her judgment.

“My physical when I came out of retirement the second time. I was being my usual charming self and she wasn’t having it. No bullshit for her. I still do think she was putting her hands in the freezer before she did my physical. No way a woman’s hands could be that cold without being a zom—” he cut that off with another deep drink.

“And why would she have done that?” Diana asked, teasing him a bit.

“Probably the caveman thing. Though that was hardly my fault. Alien disease devolves me into a caveman…makes it a bit hard to be polite. Though to hear Janet tell me, she was never actually sure if I had the disease, or was just having a really bad day,” he snorted and continued to drink.

* * *

Siler sat in the security room with the SFs. “Master Sergeant, should we…do something about this?”

“Why would we do that?”

“He’s revealing classified intelligence. Right? Or he’s just making up crazy stories?”

Siler gave the SF a cold look.

“Well, either way, this is a base not a bar. We should do something,” another SF added.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Stop them? Help them? Take away their booze?”

“Anyone who goes in there is just begging for trouble. Besides, they seem to be helping each other. No need for us to be involved unless something goes very wrong.”

“Yes, Master Sergeant.”

“We do have the teams on standby with the hoses though, right?”

“Yes, Master Sergeant.”

“Good. With Colonel O’Neill it’s always better to be safe than sorry.”

* * *

At this point, he was actually about a drink behind as Diana had been pushing him to do the talking while she kept emptying his box. Jon did notice when his hand went for a bottle and it wasn’t there. “What about you, Wonder Woman? I somehow doubt you made it this far without losing people.” He continued groping around until he found a bottle, though getting the top off was a bit trickier than it ought to have been. His capacity was significantly less than he remembered.

“Not too many recently. Though back in the war…Oh, and call me Diana. Most of my people are back on Themiscyra, but…there are some victims who stay with you,” she took a deep drink. “You know I cut Dr. Psycho’s head off.” Her voice was easily understandable, but taking on a bit of stream-of-consciousness.

Jon blinked at that.

“Sorry, don’t know who that is.”

“Mind controlling rapist cannibal.”

“Seems like a good person to behead,” Jon concluded, raising his beer. Hers came up as well and tinked against his.

“I didn’t cover it up or anything. Just chopped his head off and left him in his hidden lair. No one ever asked me about it, though I think Batman knows. He was pissy for a long time.”

“Batman is pissy about a lot of stuff,” Jon said, which for some reason they both found hilarious.

When they could breathe again, she continued.

“I would probably have just arrested him, but he had Superman under control and wouldn’t release him. He was gonna have him…well, doesn’t matter. He didn’t get to do it.”

“Hard to control people without a head,” Jon noted. Which they also found hilarious. So much so that they knocked over their beers. Fortunately, they had plenty more.

“I say probably, because I still remember some of his victims. I was able to free them with my lasso. Let them see the truth of his lies, but…they also saw the truth of what he’d done to them. I wanted to kill him for that…”

“You know that little double cross I pulled on Shiva?”

“Yep.”

“Did the same thing once to an alien who used little kids as bombs. Only not so gentle. Told her I would let her go if she fixed it, then took her through the Stargate and shot her. Like a bunch of times. Wish I could have saved the host, but Nirrti’d had her for centuries. Total bullshit that is. Would have shot her right there in the base but couldn’t do that. She was a prisoner. Of course, once we let her go, she was just another crazy monster out in the world. Universe. Whatever. No problem killing her then. Got to play by the rules when you’re committing murder. Otherwise, people might notice and get mad.”

They continued to drink at a fantastic rate.

“What were we talking about?”

“Janet Fraiser,” Diana said, her beer in the air.

“Right!” Jon leapt to his feet and knocked his chair back with a crash, and falling over the table in a manner which he was going to feel in the morning (especially with cracked ribs). But he didn’t feel it now, instead raising his bottle. “To Janet Fraiser, the best damn doctor I ever knew!”

Diana clinked her bottle against his. They both drank. She rose a little more gracefully than the smaller clone. “And Alice Frost, who outlived that evil little bastard Dr. Psycho!”

They clicked bottles again and drank again.

“And to Janet Fraiser, the best damn doctor I ever knew!”

They went round and round like that for a surprisingly long time.

* * *

“If any copies of this leak, to anyone except me, you will all discover why maintenance is the last group of people you want annoyed with you.”

“Yes, Master Sergeant.”

* * *

Eventually they needed to replace their bottles from the box, instead of the set they’d pulled out and which now dotted the table between them.

“You know…” Jon said as he tried to sit down only to notice his chair was on its back after he’d perched on the side for a few moments.

“What?”

“What?”

“What do I know?”

“How should I know what you know? You’re all the way over there. You’re a whole different person than me, you know,” he said as he managed, on the third attempt, to get the chair right side up.

Diana stared at him. That almost made sense. Then she remembered what started this back and forth. “No, you said ‘you know.’”

“I never said I know what you know. That would be crazy. I’m not a mind reader.”

Silence stretched for a moment.

“You know…”

Diana didn’t fall for it this time and focused on getting her beer to her mouth without spilling any on herself. That was harder than it sounded.

“I don’t think Fraiser every really forgave herself for not being able to save me.”

“What? You’re here. Didn’t she save you?”

“No. It was a whole thing. Uncurable ancient disease, then symbiote, then captured by Ball. Bocce Ball and his knives and his acid…Then tortured to death and revived. Over and over and _over_ and _**over** _and _**OVER**_ —”

Diana moved around the table, to where Jon had finally made it back into his seat and put a hand on his shoulder. “Do I need to slap you?”

He looked up at her. “Did I get fresh? Don’t think I’ve ever done that when drunk. Usually I just get weepy.”

“No, to snap you out of it. I saw that in movies. Never actually got to slap anyone though. Looks like fun.”

“Slapping people? I—Why would I need to be slapped? Did I get fresh? Don’t think I’ve ever—"

She slapped him. He fell out of the chair. “Ow.”

She went back to her own chair and sat down in it, took another drink, “Why are you on the floor?”

“I don’t know. My face hurts though.”

“Come over here, let me take a look.”

He managed it, with only a few stumbles. There was a bright red handprint on his cheek. “Looks like someone slapped you. Did you get fresh with someone?”

“When would I have done that? I’ve been here! Is there someone in here with us?”

“I don’t see anyone,” she got up and they spun around so they were back to back.

“Doesn’t mean anything. They could be Reetou. Invisible, terrorist, child-cloning Reetou. Did we ever find where the Reetou central authority was? They could be so useful.”

“What are you talking about? Re’tu?” Diana asked, forgetting about the allegedly invisible threat and turned to face him, spinning him around.

“Oh, right, Re’tu. Poor Charlie. Little kid needed a Tok’ra just to survive. Hope he got a nicer one than I did.”

“Who’s Charlie?”

* * *

The amusement was gone from Siler in an instant as he swore violently and he grabbed for the radio. “Go. Go. Go.”

* * *

It was almost like the drunkenness drained out of Jon. “How do you know about Charlie?” he asked, hands coming up to catch her by the shoulder. She stared at him blearily.

Before any answer could come the door snapped open. Both spun to face it. Then Jon kept spinning and tumbled to the concrete floor. Diana managed a _little_ better, managing to stop facing the crew of SFs and the gigantic hose they were holding. “What in the—”

Her attempt to ask a question was cut off by the blast of water from the hose which sprayed all over everything in the room. Bottles crashed to the ground and shattered, and the two drunk superheroes were hit with a massive amount of very cold water.

That didn’t exactly sober them up all the way, but it did distract them and got them out of the sloppiest of drunks phase. After that, they decided it was time to send them home. Rather than wait for the next window. They had to carry Jon, who’d curled up around his last bottle of beer and refused to be parted from it, but Diana was able to walk.

When they finally got to the mirror, Siler gave her a copy of the security footage. Allegedly for her peace of mind. Then they were shoved through.

Diana sobered the instant her powers returned, nodding politely to the guards as her mind raced through the last hour or so. Her memory was fragmentary, at best, but she was pretty sure things had gone okay. She completely ignored the fact that she was soaking wet and the fact that Jon was passed out. At least they didn’t stink of alcohol thanks to their impromptu shower.

“Is he all right?” the nearest guard asked.

“He will be. I’ll get him home.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Wonder Woman hauled him home and tucked him in. Fortunately, she avoided the other members of the Team, which was good as she didn’t want to explain why she was carrying home their apparently underage colleague, passed out drunk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been planning the drunk Jon and Diana scene for a while, but then it went a lot darker than I intended. 
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


	11. Catching Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone comes back together and deals with the fallout of their separate adventures and Jon's decision to lie to Lady Shiva.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited this to add a bit more to Diana's conversation with Jon.

Jon woke up very early the next morning, as he’d passed out barely after noon. To his utter shock, he only felt moderately shitty, instead of almost dead. Being young again had some advantages, but still the alcohol on top of the concussion had been a bad idea. After every concussion he’d gotten at the SGC, Janet had insisted he not drink.

He actually made it all the way through that thought before he remembered why he’d started drinking. Giving up on getting up, he lay back in the bed, turning over and ran straight into the bottle of beer he had apparently carried from one dimension to another. It was still full.

At the moment, the thought of any more drinking was rather nauseating. But it was lodged in a rather uncomfortable place. Eventually that was sufficient to motivate him to get up and take a shower. After the hoses, that wasn’t as necessary as he’d expected. He was even more surprised to realize his ribs had been rewrapped. Which was good as they hurt like hell. He had a vague memory of stumbling into a table? He was almost shocked at the gas mask on the bedside table. A brief note from Diana said that she’d picked it up on the way back.

That was all very nice, but he was in no shape to consider it. Or much of anything else, except his urgent need for a toothbrush. His mouth tasted like some of the worst prison food he’d ever had. And given some of the places he’d been, that was saying something. Unfortunately, the toothbrush provided was electronic and made this odd little whine. Usually that was fine, but at the moment it felt like the sound a tiny drill was making as it squeaked its way through his skull.

Eventually he gave up, used mouthwash and delicately picked his way out into the cave, dressed in regular clothes (on the theory that his armor probably needed to be cleaned). He snagged the bottle on his way out. He’d add it to the souvenir wall that Kid Flash was putting together. The others wouldn’t understand, but if he was going to be part of the team then he should be part of the team. That included idiotic little rituals.

He placed it beside the MONQI eyeball, then noticed that besides that and the cultist’s mask and his own, broken gas mask there were several other items present. When he’d left yesterday there had not been a solid piece of ice that showed no signs of melting, or a full-size golden helmet sitting there.

After a moment of staring, he added the bottle. Then he jumped about three feet in the air when Superboy’s voice came from behind him. “Welcome back. When did you get in?”

The other clone wasn’t particularly quiet. Jon must have been more out of it then he thought.

“No idea. Diana must have dropped me off.”

Superboy cocked his head quizzically.

“Things did not go well. Long day. I see you folks were busy,” Jon transparently was changing the subject.

Superboy was kind enough to go along with it, though his broad face clearly showed his concern. His emotional control was coming along, but hiding what he felt was a whole different ballgame.

“The ice must be Kaldur’s. He paid a visit to Atlantis. But the mask is the helmet of Dr. Fate. Powerful magical artifact. Don’t touch it or put it on. It’ll let Dr. Fate possess your body and use it as a weapon. He is apparently _really_ powerful.”

“Why do we have a trapped magical item in here? Also, is magic real?”

“Yes, magic is real,” Kid Flash said, as he joined them.

Artemis, a step behind gave a laugh that wasn’t very nice and was fairly confusing.

Kid Flash turned around, “A true scientist is always glad to learn.”

She laughed even harder. So hard she ended up leaning against the wall. Kid Flash turned his back on her, trying for dignified.

“And we have a trapped magical item here because it isn’t trapped. There’s a person inside it, a former member of Justice Society.”

Jon looked at him blankly. “Folks, I’m not from this dimension, remember? I can barely keep up with the current good guys and bad guys.”

“Good guy, from about fifty years ago,” Kid Flash glossed.

“Um…okay. If he’s a good guy, should we really just be leaving him on the shelf? I mean, I won’t use it. Already did the possession thing. Went poorly,” Jon shuddered remembering waking up in Ba’al’s fortress. “But…”

“No one puts on the helmet,” Aqualad ordered as the impromptu gathering began to grow. Megan followed him in. “Too much risk that he won’t let you take it off again.”

“Doesn’t that risk get worse the longer we leave him on the shelf?” Kid Flash asked.

“I asked the League. Based on what Zatarra said, this has always been an issue with Fate. Even when he was being used more regularly.”

“I see,” Jon shrugged. “Well, not my thing. What’s up with the ice?” It wasn’t until after he asked that he realized that this was leading the conversation rather directly back in the direction he didn’t want.

Aqualad was already answering. “Black Manta attacked Atlantis. They had recovered an ancient creature trapped in magical ice. The creature was mostly destroyed, but a sample survived and is being studied at Star Labs. I thought the ice might make a nice souvenir.”

“Ah. Well, I’m glad everyone is all right,” Jon started to edge towards the door, but Megan floated over the group and picked up the bottle.

“What is,” she brought it up to her face, “henikin?”

“Heineken,” he corrected her pronunciation.

“Which is?”

“Beer.”

Everyone looked at him, confused.

“A common, mildly alcoholic drink,” Superboy said, again pulling from implanted knowledge.

“Yes.”

“Extra-dimensional beer?” Kid Flash asked dubiously.

“Always the fancy words…yes, beer from back home.”

“And how did you get beer?” Robin asked, trying to play the den mother, which was a bit hard, given the disparity in age and height.

“There’s a military base on the other side of the gate. Plenty of beer to be found, if you know where to look for it.” Which was true, but not complete and did not invite further questions.

Unfortunately for Jon, Kid Flash had all the social sensitivity of a brick. “Are you even old enough to drink?”

“Not on this planet,” which was also true, even less complete and actively misleading. He needed to get them off this topic, “It wasn’t a great trip home.”

“Dr. Roquette?” Aqualad asked.

“She’s fine. All set up with the other geeks doing science stuff. Bad news. A friend of mine was killed.”

“How?” Kid Flash asked at the same time as the others were expressing their sympathies. Ignoring the sympathy for the question, Jon chose to answer.

“There was a battle. She got hit. It happens. I missed the funeral, but Di--Wonder Woman and I held a little impromptu wake.”

“You and Wonder Woman got drunk toget—” Kid Flash began.

Artemis got hold of an ear and twisted fairly hard. “Open mouth, remove foot. Close mouth until after brain is engaged,” she said.

He winced and pulled free, but was successfully distracted.

“Why is everyone up and here at the crack of dawn, anyway?” Jon asked.

“Your drinking buddy,” Kid Flash ducked the slap to the back of his head from Artemis, “set up a meeting. Apparently, she wants to talk about Lady Shiva.”

“Oh, good,” his voice was thick with sarcasm. “I was really hoping to never think about her ever again.”

“Here’s hoping she hasn’t escaped, yet,” Robin said with a nasty smile. He, Kid Flash and Aqualad were still grumpy about him shooting Red Arrow, though Kaldur was clearly distracted by whatever had happened in Atlantis.

“Indeed.”

“Fenrir, could I have a moment before we head down to the briefing room?” Kaldur asked. The others took the hint, though Kid Flash had to be shoved by Artemis into moving off.

Superboy did pause on his way out. “If you want to talk, Jon.”

“Thank you,” Jon had no intention of burdening the kid with his thoughts, but it was good to see him thinking about someone else. At least when that someone else wasn’t a Kryptonian.

Superboy headed out.

“What's up, boss?”

“You were incorrect regarding my king. It was no treason to oppose his will in this matter. By his own word, when we are on the surface, things are…different.”

“And did you know that when you disobeyed?” Jon countered.

Kaldur shook his head.

“Look, I’m not saying you did anything wrong. Some of my best friends are traitors.”

Kaldur glared at him.

“It’s true. But they knew they were committing treason. I’m just saying, think it all the way through next time?”

“There will not be a next time. I will not return to Atlantis.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“I do not.”

“Fair enough. Anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“No.”

* * *

“Jon. Aqualad. Excellent,” Wonder Woman said as they arrived.

“Diana.”

“Wonder Woman.”

The tall superheroine took up a surprisingly formal posture, but then again, she had been trained in traditional Amazonian rhetoric. No fancy images came up on the screen, as she apparently had not created any sort of presentation for whatever this was. “I apologize for the early hour, but I have unavoidable commitments later today. However, the capture of Lady Shiva is good news. She has already been transferred to Belle Reve prison. She will remain there during her trial, attending virtually. Since the security upgrades in 2007 there have been no successful escapes from Belle Reve. Her chances of escape are minimal.”

“It’s Lady Shiva,” Robin argued. “She’ll find a way.”

“Perhaps. But that is not the purpose of this briefing. In her initial interrogation, she admitted a great many things. Most of the those involved believe she is attempting to get herself transferred to a less secure prison in another jurisdiction by confessing to various crimes abroad.”

“Will that work?” Kid Flash asked. “I thought Belle Reve was the central prison for super-criminals?”

“Technically Lady Shiva doesn’t have any superpowers. She could argue that Belle Reve is the wrong prison for her. Not that BOP cares about such things,” Artemis said, more than a hint of bitterness in her voice about the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“ _Most_ believe she wants a transfer. What do you think she wants?” Jon asked.

“To boast. She is a proud woman and her work has usually been in the shadows. Metaphorically and literally.”

“That would fit with my brief encounter with her.”

“I read Miss Martian’s report on the encounter. Your own has been delayed?”

“Concussion. Then hangover. I’ll do it today.”

“Regardless, that is not our concern at the moment. I have arranged for the Cave to be notified if she is transferred or escapes, as avenging her insulted honor is likely to be high on her to-do list.”

“Thanks,” Jon muttered. The others were somewhat more honestly thankful.

“You’re welcome. Unfortunately, I’m not here just to close the loop on this. Amongst the crimes she confessed to was the murder of a Themysciran scout in Indonesia. Allegedly Lady Shiva bested her in single combat.”

“How?” Superboy asked, plainly disturbed by the thought of such a defeat.

“She did admit to using a magical sword to overcome the Amazon’s durability, but was quite insistent it provided no other benefits.”

Jon’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure what this has to do with us.”

“I would simply use my Lasso of Truth to extract the information I require, but there have been…legal concerns with that,” Diana frowned. “And the Warden objects to magical artifacts within Belle Reve. Apparently, there have been…incidents.”

Jon closed his eyes all the way. “Hit me with it.”

Diana shrugged bare shoulders. “Sorry. She wants a rematch,” Jon lowered his head into his hands. “No tricks. No energy weapons. No allies. She also wants you to use the ‘odd style’ so she can get a feel for it. You give her that, she gives up the location of my sister’s body and we can take her home.”

“Will she not simply kill him?” Kaldur asked.

“She’s promised she won’t kill, or permanently injure him during the match. You’ve got some time to think about it. She wants you in peak condition beforehand. This would probably also mean that she was less interested in killing you, if she should escape,” Diana argued.

“Not kill him during the match, sure. As soon as its over—” Robin began.

Jon looked up. “You’ve got this under control, Diana?” he interrupted.

“I do, Jon.”

“Done. It’ll take a while for the rib to fully heal.”

“You sure about this? I doubt Belle Reve will let us in as well. They’re _very_ stingy with visitor passes,” Artemis added.

Jon nodded slightly.

“If you tell me exactly what she said, I’m sure we can figure out how she’s planning to exact words her way into killing—” Robin began.

“Robin. You don’t trust the League. That’s your business. I trust Diana. She says she has this, she has this.”

Robin subsided, fairly grumpily.

“You’ve got this, right?” he repeated to Diana.

She nodded.

“Settled then.”

“Excellent. Thank you. Jon, walk with me.”

“Of course,” Jon nodded to Aqualad and followed her out.

“Did we even need to be here for this?” Artemis asked as they walked away.

“The League wouldn’t borrow one of our own without talking to our team leader,” Jon caroled back to the group. It was astounding how good his hearing was after all the years of gunfire and explosions were erased.

Artemis turned to Aqualad. “Is there a reason we _all_ needed to get up at the crack of dawn for this?”

“Given the source of our concerns with the League, it seems wise to keep all parties informed of our actions,” Kaldur countered.

“I don’t have any concerns with the League. And I need my beauty sleep—” she chucked a balled up piece of paper at Wally as he started to respond to that.

* * *

The annoying announcement played in the background as they popped into the Hall of Justice, in one of the rooms that wasn’t open to the public.

“Oh, and your friend Siler gave me this,” she passed over a disc. “It has yesterday recorded on it.”

He glanced at it for a moment and went a bit green as he remembered all the alcohol and all the discussion of classified information. With someone who definitely should not have had it. “Is there an incinerator in here?”

She smiled and waved towards a small panel in the wall. As he opened it up, she asked, “Why are you being quite so conspicuously trusting of me?”

He shrugged.

She just stared at him. Despite the fact that she clearly had somewhere else to be, she gave the impression that she could wait until the end of time.

“I appreciate what you did for me yesterday.”

There was transparently more. She waited.

“And I told you things I shouldn’t. I made the decision to trust you. No taking it back, might as well double down.”

“And it has nothing at all to do with the fact that Captain Atom and I are the only ones you can really be yourself around?”

“I’ve done undercover work before.” He paused again. She waited again. “But you aren’t wrong. I trusted my team, leaned on them. But I haven’t really leaned on my new team. It’s hard to lean on children without feeling scummy.”

“You’re not wrong. The line between child and adult is fuzzy in many places, but everywhere I’ve been Robin would have been a child when he first began working with Batman. It is…troubling.”

“Yep.”

“That’s why you declined leadership of the Team, isn’t it?”

“I can’t send children into combat. Can’t do it.”

“Neither could I.”

Jon broke the disc in half, then dropped it into the incinerator and, after a long moment of looking and waiting, checked. It was still there. He began looking around for a button. Despite the searching, he could feel Diana’s eyes on him as he deliberately bumbled around.

“It’s voice activated,” she finally said, voice thick with amusement.

“Do I just yell ‘burn, baby, burn,’ or is there some command word?”

“Computer. Incinerate.”

Now there was noise. A moment later he checked and the disc was gone. “Thanks.”

“Since you’re so determined to trust me, can I ask who Charlie is?”

This time the silence was not so warm. And it was coming from Jon.

“If you don’t want to—”

“There were two Charlies. The second was a clone, created to allow his creator to communicate with us. They didn’t do a great job of making him. Keeping him alive meant sending him to another world where he could be kept alive. Good kid. He survived until the Tok’ra were almost destroyed on Ravenna.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, though much of that didn’t make any sense. Still, the crux of the matter seemed clear, good kid, dead too young.

“He survived two years after I met him. The first Charlie was my son. He shot himself by accident with my gun when he was eight years old. He didn’t survive,” he told it matter-of-factly, voice level, chin firm, eyes dry.

And it was an act. She was no empath and he was actually quite a good actor, given the performances she’d seen so far. But this was entirely unbelievable. Not the words, those she feared were all too true. But the lack of emotion.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated, more for lack of anything else to say than because she thought it would help.

He shrugged. “Then I tried to commit suicide by evil alien overlord. Didn’t work. Other people die, but I always stick around. There’s even two of me now. Ironic.”

“Seems to me, that I remember you’ve also done more than your share of dying?” she pointed out.

“True. But I keep coming back.”

“That a bad thing?”

“Nope. Just…ironic.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

“Thank you for listening.”

They went their separate ways.

She paused for a moment. “Do you know why I went back to Themiscyra after the Second World War was over?”

He shook his head slightly, reminded that she was a _lot_ older than she looked.

“I fought for the Allies for many years. Alongside many people. Some superpowered. Some not. When Hitler turned his ubers from the east onto us at the Battle of the Bulge, we had to hold them back. I could defeat any one of them, but there were so many and the front was so wide…those who had experience with them had to be sent to handle them.”

Jon nodded slightly.

“Almost all of them died. Friends, companions, a lover. Then we won. The war was over and almost instantly the Allies fractured, turning on one another. I had lost everyone in the outside world I cared about and the cause I fought for was eating itself. I returned to Themiscyra and wallowed in sorrow and grief for a long time.”

“But no beer.”

“Ambrosia, but no beer,” she agreed, with a slight, sad smile. “It is actually better.”

“Then Heineken? Believe it when I taste it.”

Her smile broadened, then shrank.

“It’s always a risk of immortals, that we’ll get…stuck in something with none of the usual mechanisms to force us out. Eventually, my mother got as sick of my whining as everyone else must have been by then and gave me the Lasso of Truth and offered me a chance to see what I was becoming.”

He nodded slightly.

“I came back out the next day and got back to work. A lot of people think it was about the fall of the Soviet Union, or the new order that emerged, or new threats, but that wasn’t it at all. I was finally ready to try again.”

Jon nodded more deeply. “You’re a better person than me.”

“Am I?” her voice was amused and disbelieving.

“Yeah. I just wanted to die killing a bunch of horrible monsters.”

“And yet here you are, ready to fight for another world.”

“Which is also exactly where you are, Diana.”

She shrugged a bit at that, uncomfortable with the praise.

“Talk later?” she asked.

“Definitely.”

They went their separate ways.

* * *

Jon put up with about five minutes of friendly teasing from Kid Flash when he got back, before he found a way to sneak off. None of them could find him again until Batman summoned all of them for a briefing. Apparently there was some problem in Bialya.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, while Jon was off world, two other things are going on. First, Aqualad heads back to Atlantis to discover that Tula is dating his buddy Garth, make peace with Aquaman and returns. No weird battle with Clayface where Batman saves them and it’s never mentioned again. At the same time, Superboy, Kid Flash, Artemis and Megan are having their wonderful encounter with Dr. Fate and the Witchboy. This streamlines the narrative a bit (Robin is off with Batman doing their own stuff) and avoids the scene that I’d totally forgotten where Robin, a thirteen year old, unmodified human punches what appears to be a cement wall and dents it rather than breaking his hand…
> 
> As Jon isn’t involved, these missions go basically as written in the series. Most of this is covered above, but not in any particular detail, as Jon wasn’t present and doesn’t really care.
> 
> Also, as Aqualad has not yet been warned by Sportsmaster of the mole on the team, he prefers to operate out in the open.
> 
> Comments are always welcome


	12. Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey, a cameo from Jack O'Neill. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue taken from Season 1, Episode 8

Jack hurt.

That was nothing new. But last he remembered he hadn’t done anything to his ribs. Or his nose. And he hadn’t been wearing desert camouflage and a gas mask. And he definitely hadn’t been flat on his back in some random stretch of desert. He reached for his radio—nothing. No gun either. No team.

Not great. He tried to take inventory of what he did have. Weird body armor. A knife. A gas mask. A flashlight. A few flares. A flashbang, and two smoke grenades. And it felt like he had an earbud in. Speaking normally got no response. After a quick look around, he took off the gas mask, holding his breath.

The earpiece that came out was unconnected to anything, and was so bright red it was visible despite the minimal light. Clearly not military issue. No obvious way to activate or deactivate. He dropped it in his pocket for the moment. Or would have, if he’d had a pocket. He missed his vest and all its many pockets. He carried it instead, wondering all the while if he should ditch it. It might well have a tracker in it. The only question was who would be able to follow it? The SGC? Or whoever had stolen his memories?

His memory had clearly been screwed with. The last thing he remembered was being on the base at a briefing for the next mission. Wouldn’t be the first time someone screwed with his memory. A hand rose to check the back of his neck. No implantation scar. No voices in his head. No alien parasite controlling his every waking moment as the world descends into a nightmarish hell from which there is no escape.

Time to start looking around. At least he was wearing the right camouflage. Though he really would have liked a weapon and some lighter weight armor. He was sweating like a pig and clearly had been for quite a while. The gas mask was doing its best, but it wasn’t designed with anti-stink capabilities in mind.

He moved silently through the dunes. It was dark, but his mask had night-vision built in. And already activated, which was good, as he had no idea how it worked.

There was a body on the ground not far from him. It was still giving off heat, though he couldn’t see whoever it was. He circled around, surveying the area as best he could. If this was a trap with a sniper watching then he was screwed. There was no way to survey a couple of square miles of desert without air support.

It also might be a shield trap. He’d walked into one of those a few years back. That had not been fun. In the end though, he couldn’t just leave whoever it was. Especially since they looked a little small. Maybe just an offworlder who hadn’t gotten all their meals growing up, but also might be a teenager.

He listened carefully for any sound of an ambush. There was a soft murmur coming from the body. It wasn’t English, Spanish, Russian, or Arabic, but he couldn’t identify the language.

Carefully lowering himself the rest of the way into the sand, he belly crawled over towards the other person and tried to shake him (for the figure was clearly male) awake. That failed. He scooted up, checking the man out. He had odd slits in the side of his neck and webbed fingers. Definitely an offworlder. Probably some sort of genetic experiment by the Goa’uld. If not for her being very, very dead, he might have thought Nirrti was responsible.

Of more immediate interest was the matching earpiece in the man’s ear. They were clearly on the same side. Which meant he had to get the kid, for he was clearly a teenager (assuming he aged the same way humans did) out of here. There was nothing to make a stretcher out of and Jack was not confident in his ability to carry the younger man an unknown distance in an unknown direction. So he needed supplies, a map, transportation. He needed people.

With more effort than he expected (the boy must be denser than he looked) Jack picked him up and staggered back to a slightly shielded spot. A rock outcropping would keep aerial observers from spotting him and he moved away a reasonable distance, found a good spot and set off his first smoke grenade as dawn finally began to break.

It didn’t take long for him to hear the sound of a vehicle’s engine. Smoke brought people. A pair of heavily armed and armored people in what was clearly a scout jeep. One advanced to examine the grenade while the other stayed back. They were speaking to each other in a different language Jon didn’t recognize. It clearly wasn’t the same as that his teenage associate was still muttering in.

Not remembering the sides, Jack wanted to be as gentle as possible. So when he rose silently from the sand, he only grabbed the man and pulled him backwards behind the vehicle by his throat. Very kindly, he did not simply slit his throat, but took the time to choke him out. By that point, the man on point had grabbed the grenade and was looking around for his buddy. Reasonable paranoia, but bad training led him back towards the vehicle. Jack had already scooted under it and came up behind the second of them about the time he found the unconscious body of his friend.

He went down almost as gently. Two shots from his rifle before Jack could disable him were shockingly loud in the desert and would echo for a far distance. That made his time-table more difficult. He seized two rifles, two pistols and a radio before taking the jeep itself. He really should have destroyed their other radio, but he still didn’t know where he was, or who any of the players were. It was hard to walk back 'sorry, I left two of your men to die of dehydration in the desert.'

Speaking of which, he was extremely glad of the water in the jeep, washing the sand from his throat, then retaining the remainder for the kid. Getting back was a lot quicker with the jeep than on foot and he loaded the kid up easily enough. Water was good. Roused him enough to speak in nice clear sentences.

Shame it was still in his native language.

Jack took a moment to examine the jeep. It was a _lot_ higher tech than he expected from a vehicle held by folks who could be taken out that easily. He couldn’t read any of the text on the monitor built into the dashboard, but there was an icon that was clearly a map. When he pushed that, it brought up his current location on a GPS overlay. There was a border highlighted nearby and a dot that was probably a city beyond it. As the only other thing highlighted appeared from the tracks to be their point of origin, he chose to head away from the angry armed men.

With a shrug, he decided to head for the border. It was his best bet.

The vehicle drove perfectly for about two miles, then it just stopped. Given the timing, it seemed likely that there was some remote kill switch. He regretted not killing the soldiers as he pulled a bit of the jeep apart to make a stretcher and began to drag his companion away, along with as much food and water as the jeep had held (and, needless to say, a rifle on his back, a pistol on his hip and as much ammunition as he could carry). Three separate times he went back and cleaned his track, trying to make sure that he couldn’t be followed.

The next few hours were unpleasant. He’d taken a compass from the jeep, so he was fairly certain he was going in the right direction. A border was likely to be watched, given how militarized this side was. His complete inability to hide from aerial or satellite surveillance meant that he was always stressed, but it also somewhat decreased the chances that he would simply die in the desert.

It was a little embarrassing how often he had to stop. He’d dropped the gas mask on the stretcher with his companion, as it was interfering with his breathing. Rationing water meant he had a nasty headache and was slowly losing the ability to sweat, which was a sure sign of heat stroke. He had to pause and take off most of his armor. That took some doing.

After another sip and checking to make sure the unconscious kid was still all right, Jack kept going.

And going.

He had to stop near noon and let the sun pass. If he’d been more on top of things he would have tried to travel at night. The desert got bitterly cold at night though. He might have to huddle up with the kid to stay alive, or start a fire. Though that would be risky.

If he had the distance right, then he had about thirty miles to go to the city (if that was what the dot was). Two in the car. In this terrain, he might be managing ten miles a day, given the weight. If he was lucky.

Two and a half more days, unless he came across someone first.

He checked the water supplies. Rationing was definitely still necessary for water. For food, he was all right, though getting it into the unconscious kid was gonna be tricky. Well, no time like the present. Another sip of water in him and another in the kid, then he ate. With that done, he picked out the mushiest food he could find and got to work trying to get it down, despite the kid being almost entirely nonresponsive. Not the easiest thing he’d ever done. Not the neatest either.

When the sun finally passed, he took up the march again. Continuing on until he almost dropped, then resting and beginning again and again and _again_.

His legs hurt like hell. He hurt like hell. And whatever had happened to his nose had also happened to his ribs. This was well on its way to being one of his least favorite times in the desert. Given his history, that was _really_ saying something.

Jack’s breathing was coming in painful shallow rasps and his blood was pounding in his ears, but he still moved instantly when an unnatural sound came from behind him. In an instant he was under his removed body armor, shielding the kid with it and his own flesh as the rifle pointed out towards where there had been movement.

He didn’t see anything, but that wasn’t proof. Between Reetu and cloaking devices, they might lie to his eyes. But after thirty years, the rest of his senses were hard to deceive.

After a moment there was the sound of something landing and a ship decloaked. It wasn’t any design he’d seen before. Neither American, nor Goa’uld, nor Asgardian. The first person out was a green alien. If human, probably another teenager.

“Jon? Kaldur?” her voice was full of concern and she rushed forward towards them.

He popped up, “Don’t move, lady,” the rifle was steady in his hands.

“Jon, it’s all right,” her voice was soothing.

“Back away,” Jack snapped, gesturing her away from him. He’d take the ship and get both himself and his associate out of here.

She obligingly moved away, but there was movement in his peripheral vision, there were more people on the ship and one was rushing him, something flying towards his weapon. Jack smoothly shifted his aim, then jerked the gun out of alignment. It was a child rushing at him in some sort of Halloween costume. He’d nearly shot a kid.

He hesitated.

The kid did not, striking out quickly. If he hadn’t done that, Jack might have just stood there, but honed combat instincts activated regardless of the situation. A quick block and he managed to convert a lethal throat-strike into a shoulder grab. The kid trapped his arm in a nasty arm-bar.

Another kid was suddenly on his other arm. The alien was moving towards his companion. That couldn’t be allowed. He roared his defiance, kicking the kid on his left side, hard enough to dislodge him, then grabbed the other kid, lifting him up and trying to slam him into the alien. Then all the muscles in his body froze and there was nothing he could do but watch as the alien touched his associate. A moment later her hand was on his head.

And Jack was no more.

Jon’s eyes focused.

“You can let go, Robin,” he said quietly.

Robin did so.

“You all right, Wally?” Jon asked, pulling out his canteen and taking a deep drink before heading over to splash the rest on Kaldur’s gills.

Wally held up a hand with one finger up. It wasn’t his thumb, but Jon still took it as a positive sign.

Artemis and Superboy stepped out, followed by a rolling giant metal orb. Jon blinked at that, then shrugged. “We done?”

“Yep,” Robin said smugly.

“Don’t you want to know what happened?” Megan asked.

“We can discuss it after we get Kaldur out of here.”

Jon gathered up his stuff, as well as the weapons.

“You can leave those here,” Robin said.

“You don’t just leave guns around,” Jon snapped.

“It’s the middle of the desert. We’d never have found you without your earpieces,” Robin argued.

“Where were you even going?” Artemis asked.

“Dhabar. It was on the map of the jeep I stole.”

“You think you would have made it?” she asked.

“Glad I don’t have to walk that far. Now, can we get out of here. I’ve had enough of the desert to last three lifetimes.”

“It was only two lifetimes at the briefing,” Wally said, having finally recovered his breath.

“Yeah, well, long day.”

Wally nodded. “You can say that again.”

“Yeah, well, long day.”

Wally winced. “That was the daddest of dad jokes.”

Jon looked at him blankly. “Not from this dimension. Don’t get the slang,” he said as he finished loading his junk, abandoning nothing except the makeshift stretcher.

“Dad jokes. You know, like when you say—”

“Wally?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t let the fact that my eyes are closed keep you from continuing.”

“I won’t.”

“Or the snoring.”

“I won’t.”

“Or the vicious beating that I’ll give you if you wake me up.”

“I won’t.”

“Why is it that wherever I go, I end up surrounded by snarky assholes?”

“Sorry, not from your dimension, don’t understand your slang,” Wally concluded with a smile that Jon couldn’t see as his eyes were indeed closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The episode this chapter is based off of does a lot of cutting back and forth and what happened will be addressed in the AAR in the next chapter, but it’s basically what happened in the episode, minus Aqualad, as he was a bit busy.
> 
> Also, I honestly don’t know if a gas mask would block out the smell of sweat. I assumed no, but an internet search suggested either answer might be correct dependent on type.


	13. Memory, AAR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RR&S: Rest, Recovery and...School? Jon's glad he's got a GED.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some dialogue lifted from Season 1, Episode 10.

J’onn J’onzz was sent to the AAR this time, given the mind-screw that this mission had been. Jon was a little disappointed it wasn’t Diana, but the Martian Manhunter was their resident expert on telepathy.

The infiltration had gone relatively well. They’d made it into Bialya, no problem. Megan went in under camouflage to see what was causing the energy signals the League had detected. Running into the extraordinarily creepy Psimon, with his transparent, oversized skull and telepathic powers was unfortunate. None of the others could see her, but he’d sensed her presence.

And whatever he’d done had rippled out from her to all of the telepathically linked group, wiping the last six months from their mind. At that point J’onn paused the AAR to discuss means of preventing such things in future. That descended into telepathic technobabble after a few moments. Jon made it through almost a minute of that before his patience ran out. “Okay, technobabble at each other after the meeting. Solution to this problem is training with John. Let’s more forward.”

Superboy leaned back in his seat. “I honestly don’t remember much. It was all instinct. See, smash, run. Until Megan woke me back up,” he leaned over and nudged her gently. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

She blushed brightly.

“And after that it was mostly breaking free and finding Sphere here,” he patted the giant metal sphere that had come back with them. It was self-propelled and apparently alive (given that it had been being…tortured by the Bialyan forces). Its origin was totally unknown and all attempts to investigate had gone nowhere. Jon had argued against keeping it, but the group had folded to Superboy’s puppydog eyes.

“Psimon got away after I beat him. I could have chased him, but it seemed more important to find you two,” Megan said, nodding to Kaldur and Jon.

“I apologize for my uselessness,” Kaldur said.

“Desert, Aqualad. Not exactly your favored terrain,” Wally pointed out.

“What about the three of you? Any thoughts?” Jon asked. Even though Kaldur was in charge of the Team, Jon had somehow ended up in charge of the AARs.

Robin shook his head, then cocked it slightly. “I could use some more practice in the desert. I lost your tracks pretty fast.”

Jon nodded slightly.

Wally nodded. “I need to upgrade my costume with more spots for food. I run out way too fast.”

“Good idea.”

“Running out of arrows, but that’s not really avoidable. I had extras on the bioship, but didn’t remember where it was…” Artemis admitted.

“Fair. Anything else?”

There was a moment when Wally was going to say something, then he shot a look at Artemis and shrugged.

“All right, for me…given the situation I did all right. I do need to up my exercise routine. My stamina isn’t where it should be, especially in my armor. I also need to consider carrying some hardcopy maps around.”

“Old school,” Robin said. Jon couldn’t tell if the kid was approving, or mocking.

“All right, I think we can call this a day,” Jon said. He started to rise and almost fell over as his legs informed him they were _very_ displeased with the abuse he’d put them through.

Aqualad caught him and helped him the rest of his way to his feet. “I should say ‘thank you,’ as well, Jon. Even without knowing who I was, you carried me towards safety.”

Jon shrugged slightly. “We’re on the same team,” he said, with a slightly embarrassed movement.

“Still. Thank you.”

“I was also carrying you away from safety in the form of the bioship.”

Robin pouted. “I wanted to say that.”

The group broke up, with Jon being the last to stagger out, leaving Artemis and Wally behind. Jon paused just outside, leaning on the wall.

“Well, goodnight—”

“A ninja movie you watched last night?” Wally asked.

“Uh—”

“It erased six months of our memory.”

“I meant a movie I watched the night before we were taken back to—uh, you know what I mean.”

It took a moment for Wally and a somewhat longer moment for Jon to work out what she meant.

“We all woke up knowing—” he began, skeptically.

“Do you know anything about Green Arrow’s family?” Artemis interrupted him.

“Nothing except he’s got a niece and that he and Black Canary are a truly nauseating sight.”

“I don’t know anything about Flash’s family either, Wally. That’s for the best. Can’t be made to say what you don’t know.”

Wally considered that. Then considered her statement about her dad wanting her to kill him. Wouldn’t be the first good brother, evil brother situation he’d heard of. And it wasn’t any of his business. But he wanted to know sooooo bad.

“But—”

She gave him a death glare. He held up his hands defensively, then continued, just a little irrepressibly. “You know, while we were out there, while I was carrying you away from the army, it almost seemed like—”

“You need to work on your stamina too?” Artemis asked, with a pseudo-sweet smile.

Jon left before his laughter could be heard.

* * *

“Why doesn’t Jon have to do this?” Superboy asked.

“G-E-D, baby,” Jon caroled, waving the piece of paper he had, in fact, pulled out for precisely this purpose.

“When did you get a GED?”

“As quickly as I could after being created. For some reason _very_ few employers were willing to accept ‘no really, knowledge implanted by an alien clone machine,' as proof that I knew anything.”

“Narrow-minded,” Robin said with a sniff.

“I know, right?”

Superboy was complaining, but he also stuck close to Megan, as did the Sphere.

“You might want to change before you depart,” Kaldur noted, looking at Superboy’s standard shirt with a big red ‘S’ on it and Megan's martian attire.

“Oh, I spent hours choosing this outfit!” Megan gave a little spin and her outfit transformed into something closer to standard human garb, rather than the cape and giant red x on white. “What do you think? Can M’gann M’orzz pass as an earth girl now?”

As she was still green, the answer was no, but no one had the heart to tell her.

“Just kidding. Meet Megan Morse.” She shifted her appearance and her skin lightened, though her hair remained red.

“What’s your new name?” she asked Superboy with a little curtsey. He looked at her in confusion

“I chose the name John Jones for myself and suggested John Smith for Red Tornado,” the Martian Manhunter explained, having apparently come along to wish his niece well on her first day of school. Though Superboy hadn’t commented, Superman’s absence had clearly stung. He shifted his appearance so that he appeared as an impressively tall professional Black man. Though how Red Tornado could pass as human was far less clear. “You could be a John too.”

“Pass,” Superboy said firmly.

“We’ve already got one,” Jon shot Red Tornado a look, “or two Jon’s around here. Any more would get confusing.”

“Conner’s always been my favorite name,” Megan offered, dropping a hand on Superboy’s shoulder.

He folded, as he always did when she made a suggestion. A small shrug and it was decided, after all of Jon’s nagging, that he would be Conner.

“A last name will always be required,” Kaldur pointed out.

“Perhaps Kent?” J’onn offered.

“Oh, in memory of Doctor Fate? The late Kent Nelson!” Megan guessed.

“Ah…of course,” J’onn agreed in what wouldn’t have convinced anyone if they had been paying attention. Jon quietly made note of the name Kent.

“Okay. Sure. I guess it would be an honor or…something,” Superboy was clearly confused.

“Well, Conner Kent, time to change your shirt,” Megan said. He touched the giant ‘S’. “You don’t want to reveal your identity.”

Conner casually took off his shirt, turned it inside out. “Will this work?”

Megan leered at him and blushed, “Works for me.”

“Wait, shouldn’t I be Conner Nelson?” Superboy asked as Megan drew him away, Sphere following.

Jon considered that sequence for a moment and the fact that he’d never seen Superboy in any other outfits. And the fact that unlike the others he didn’t have a mentor picking up his tab and unlike Jon he didn’t have a stipend from an offworld defense agency. The kid had no income at all. Of course he was always wearing the same thing, he literally didn’t have any alternatives. Which also explained…

His eyes flickered over the two League members. One of them would have to fix this. Given the size of his stipend, he actually could afford to pay for a dependent, especially one who got room and board for free, but that wouldn’t do. Superboy needed to know his work was valued by the League.

Or did he? Even with everything that had happened, the kid was still focused on Superman. If his livelihood was tied up with the League too…

He considered the kid’s history. There was a clear right answer in his history. But how to set it up? Well…

“Conner’s going to need some ID. Robin can you grab a picture before they leave?”

Robin bounded off, eager to play with his tech and his friends.

“Red Tornado? J’onn? Who handles IDs for the League?”

“Batman,” they said chorally. Or almost chorally, as Red Tornado said “the Batman.”

“Delightful,” he hadn’t spoken to the superhero since he called the man’s subtle threat of revealing Jon’s secret. The briefing before the Bialya mission had been a bit awkward on that front.

“Is there a problem?” Kaldur asked.

“Not at all.” Batman was almost certainly in charge of the investigation, maybe with Martian Manhunter given the telepathic abilities of the Genomorphs. But one against an army was bad odds. What was needed was someone who was immune. He considered what he’d read about Diana in her file all those months ago. “Just need to have a chat with Diana about some stuff. I trust Robin can handle _the_ Batman all on his own?”

“Presumably,” Kaldur said, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “What are you planning to do while the others are busy with school?”

“Whatever mischief I can find,” Jon said with a smile and nodded politely to the others, before heading away.

Unfortunately, Diana was not instantly available to assist him. But she had some free time in a few hours to meet up with him at the Hall of Justice.

* * *

Jon had the Cadmus reports on the table in one of the Hall’s private meeting rooms, reading through them all and the materials on the people involved. Desmond/Blockbuster was locked in Belle Reve. But the Genomorphs and Guardian were a different problem. Guardian had apparently been mind controlled into attacking the kids, while the Genomorphs had apparently ‘just been following orders’ from Desmond when they mind-controlled Guardian and attacked the kids themselves. Given total lack of any idea what to do with the Genomorphs, the League had basically shrugged and left them in place.

The reports from Robin and Kid Flash were nearly useless. Robin’s focused on computer security and Kid Flash’s on the nature of the Blockbuster formula. Neither had the discipline to focus on the boring but crucial questions. Fortunately, Kaldur's was more thorough. Jon had already reviewed the information on Supe—Conner. But it also contained the information about the Genomorph’s combat capabilities. His armor should hold up against a slash from the little ones, but the telepathy and the smashing of the big ones were beyond him.

Turning to the later investigations, the notes were sketchier. Despite making the kids do actual reports of some sort, Batman and the other Leaguers generally just had their notes and maybe a summary at the top. Cadmus’s ownership basically disappeared into a cloud of shell-companies and nonsense. It owned several patents and drugs which it licensed to other companies to manufacture and distribute. Money came in from those legit companies and was spent on R&D. Money went out to employees (though not, Jon noted, the Genomorphs) and taxes and maintenance. Besides the ridiculously illegal basement, Cadmus was a very law abiding company.

The chain of command had dead-ended with Desmond. Now it dead-ended with Guardian. That was odd, but as no owner had showed up to dispute it, there was no one to complain. It really looked like whoever was behind it (assuming it wasn’t Desmond) had cut their losses. Or was waiting for attention to be elsewhere.

Most of the other staff were researchers, who’d signed elaborate NDAs and been recruited by a perfectly legitimate headhunting firm in accordance with specs given by Desmond. The exception to that was Guardian. Guardian had been a fairly successful vigilante. Good enough to get scouted for League membership, but that whole portion of his record was sealed. He’d been personally recruited by Desmond to ensure the safety of the scientists and had almost entirely dropped out of view, except occasional and reassuring communication with the League. Which was what had kept Cadmus low on their list of priorities.

And this was the man who’d somehow ended up in charge of a small army and a massive scientific facility in Washington D.C. with essentially no oversight. Jon was beginning to wonder if Desmond had really been in charge there, or if it was this Dubbilex who apparently led the Genomorphs, or if Guardian himself had taken over rather earlier than it was claimed. That might explain Desmond’s behavior, acting afraid of failure, though that might simply be whomever had originally set up Cadmus, as it had begun when Desmond was still in grad school.

Jon shoved the giant stack of papers away from himself and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes and letting the data sink in.

Cadmus was a long term problem and one that the League seemed inclined to ignore. A part of him, the Jack part, could certainly understand that. There was certainly plenty to do. But Jon was less inclined to leave problems half-solved behind him. It had come back to bite the original too many times, but he was too set in his ways to notice. A bit of youthful flexibility was a good thing.

There were two ways to do this. He could either go in and do what he’d originally intended, lean on Guardian to get Conner some support. That would work. Given the financial reports he’d glanced at, the ‘superhero’ could pry loose a six figure salary with no difficulty.

But that wouldn’t do anything about the Genomorph situation. His own brief talk with Superboy after the kid took his advice and looked at their previous mission had mentioned one thing that wasn’t in the reports. Dubbilex wanted Superboy to be the Genomorph hero, to free them. That was a ridiculous burden to put on a kid who was barely out of his pod. If he could spare Conner that weight…

“Are you asleep?” Diana asked from inside the room.

He cursed himself as he lost his balance and the chair went over backwards. He rolled free without any terrible difficulty, though his ribs did still complain a bit. Embarrassing. He flushed slightly, but smiled.

“Sneaky,” he mentioned as he straightened and dusted himself off.

“I try.”

“You succeed.”

She glanced at the table full of files. “Cadmus?”

“Cadmus.”

“Why?”

“Why go? Or why you?”

She touched the lasso, “I know why me. Why go?”

“Half of them owe a friend of mine something. The other half want him to do something. Better to finish it before they start putting pressure on him.”

She blinked. “Right, but what does that mean?”

“Cadmus, the company owes Superboy—now Conner Kent,” he added and watched her wince, and her lips twitch slightly at the name. Definitely something about Kent. “some support. The others get stuff from their mentors, I get it from the DOD, but Conner doesn’t have any source of funding.”

“The League could—”

Jon shook his head. “No offense, but the last thing I want to do is tie him to the League. He’s already obsessive about Superman. I’d like to offer him alternatives.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And you want my assistance in that?”

He nodded. “Maybe I’m wrong, but my read on you is that you want people to _choose_ to fight beside you, not stumble into it by accident. Or be forced into it.”

There was a moment as she stared down at him, before she admitted the truth of that. “And the second half? The Genomorphs? What do they want of…Conner?”

“Freedom? Self-determination? A hero to save them? Not entirely clear,” Jon shrugged. “But that’s a hell of a weight to put on a kid whose main power is hitting things real hard.”

“So, you want to go into the belly of the beast, strongarm the jailer and free the monsters?”

He thought about that for a moment. The phrasing suggested opposition, but the slight smile on her ridiculously beautiful face suggested otherwise. In the end, he went with his gut. “Sure. The problem is, I’m not sure what to do with a few thousand living weapons. If this was back home, I’d know who to talk to in the DOD, but—”

“Probably not the best solution, even there.”

“Better than being slaves to their creators. Or their creators’ heirs.”

She paused at that, considering the files on the table and her own memory of Batman’s report. If you thought of the Genomorphs as people, as she had to given the time she’d spent training Superboy, then yes that was an unavoidable conclusion. “I have some thoughts on that.”

“But for any of this to work, we have to remember why we went down there.”

She tapped her lasso again. “This can do that, but it will have to remain wrapped around both of us.”

“Is it long enough?” Jon asked, looking at the coiled rope at her hip.

Her laughter was musical and unfairly beautiful. “It’s longer than it looks. That’s not the problem.”

“What is the problem?”

She paused, considering how to explain it to him, then held up the glowing rope. “This isn’t some polygraph, or truth serum, or magical shield. It is a holy artifact of the gods. Holding it forces one to speak truth, but it hurts. Quite a lot. Which is why most justice systems reject its use. It doesn’t protect against mind control,” Jon’s eyes narrowed and his mouth opened, but she kept going, “but when wrapped around a person it shows them the truth of themselves. No magical or mundane control can prevent that sight or survive it.”

“So, it’s not a shield, it’s a cure.”

“Which is constantly on. It will prevent mind control, but only as a side effect of what it reveals to you about yourself. It has driven people and gods mad with shame, or fury. It strips away illusions, lies and denial, even those you tell yourself. If the separation between how you see yourself and what you are is great enough, it can even kill. If you want to do this, I will accompany you, but you should know what you ask.”

A while ago Jon would have scoffed at that, at the whole idea of magic. Everything was either tech, or ascended beings. But that wasn’t true here. Even if it was, this would clearly have an effect. He’d lived through horrible things. He had failed a hundred times. He deflected discussion of such things with jokes and sarcasm.

Would facing the truth of himself break him?

Not like failing to try to help a friend. Not like failing to try to protect another child in his care.

“Do it.”

She nodded. “It will hurt. Do not resist, or it will be worse.”

“I really wish that was the first time I’d been told that.” he said as she pulled the glowing rope along and wrapped it around him.

“Any last words?” she asked.

“Promise you’ll take me home if I die?”

“I promise,” she said, carefully restraining his arms for the moment to make sure if he struggled he could not pull free. As he collapsed she caught his body and lowered it to the ground.

“I really hope I didn’t just kill you, Jon,” she said to a thoroughly unconscious body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always welcome. Also, the lack of use of the lasso isn’t a plot-hole in Young Justice as there’s no evidence it even exists, or has the same powers as elsewhere. I think that’s because it’s hard to make a mystery where Diana can just make everyone tell the truth. Requires some…creativity as we will see.
> 
> Next chapter...everything goes off the rails because Jon wants to make sure Conner gets his allowance.


	14. Cadmus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don't go well at Cadmus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may go into what Jon actually experienced when the Lasso was wrapped around him in a side story if folks are interested. But for now, we’ll keep moving. This chapter is where everything starts to go off the rails. It amuses me to no end that it’s all rooted in Jon trying to get Superboy/Conner an allowance.

Jon’s eyes opened. “That was unpleasant.” Given the muscle ache and the places where the rope was biting into his skin and the tears in his eyes she might have thought it was an understatement, but for the Lasso around his skin.

“If that was only unpleasant than I’d hate to see what you’d call painful. You must have high standards.”

“Not really. Experience. And I want to appear tough in front of you.” He did not bother blushing at that. “Well, this definitely works as more than just a torture device.”

“At least it doesn’t burn once wrapped around,” she said, sliding the loop down around his waist and tying it off. She gave him twenty feet of rope. “Give me a hand with this?” she asked.

Jon moved over and grabbed the Lasso. “Any last words?” he asked, deliberately mimicking her question.

“I’ve done this before.”

“Odd last words.”

She laughed. “Promise you’ll take me home if I die?”

“I promise,” he agreed as he tied the other end around her waist.

That never got any easier, though the one additional insight she gained into herself was merely embarrassing, not painful.

“I hate to ask this, but do we need to take it off and put it back on when we get there?”

“I have an invisible plane which can land on their roof.”

Jon blinked at that, but given the Lasso, it had to be true.

“Like the bioship?”

“Very similar, yes.”

“Okay, lead the way.”

Any discussion while they were wearing the Lasso was…awkward. They were forced to answer any questions asked truthfully and discussion usually involved quite a few questions, even rhetorical ones. But after Jon stubbed his toe (invisible planes have their downsides!) then had to give a soliloquy on his current state of mind after being asked ‘Are you okay?’ they decided to limit their conversation.

Fortunately, both the Hall and Cadmus were in D.C., so the trip over was quite fast. Her aircraft was indeed VTOL and light enough to land easily on the roof. His hands itched to get at the controls. Though the fact that they were invisible was a bit of a problem.

He bumped into something invisible on his way out as well, but managed to keep from cursing this time and thereby avoided the instinctive concern that had forced answers from his lips last time.

They went in through a door on the roof, which brought a concerned guard. The poor woman grew only more concerned when she saw the two of them tied together with a glowing gold cord. “What—”

“Don’t finish that question, just take us to Guardian,” Jon interrupted.

“Fenrir. A little courtesy, please. But we would like to see Guardian, immediately,” Diana added, easily playing good cop to Jon’s bad one.

The security guard looked back and forth between the two of them, then nodded slightly. “Can I let him know you’re coming?” she asked Diana.

“You may,” Diana agreed as Jon said “Sure.” The Lasso forced them to answer the question. A quick radio call later and they were in the express elevator on their way down.

The guard led them forward, carefully keeping her eyes on the corridor and ignoring the movements in the shadowed side corridors. Jon activated the nightvision and noticed that Genomorphs were pacing them in a parallel corridor. A glance at Diana confirmed she could see it too. For a moment he tried to indulge in jealousy, but the lasso made it hard to maintain such emotions. He liked being human and knew it.

Guardian opened his own door. “Wonder Woman and…I’m sorry I don’t know your name.”

Jon tried to answer, but the lie of it curdled in his throat. He was not Fenrir. Fortunately the implied question wasn’t enough to trigger the Lasso’s forced speech.

“Fenrir,” Diana said.

“Nice to meet you,” the heavily built and armored man waved them towards seats. Though his eyes kept flickering to the Lasso, he kept pulling them back to their faces. Or Diana’s face and Jon’s mask. “What can I do for you?”

“Many, many things. Let’s start with not asking questions. Our current situation makes that difficult,” Jon said, waving at the rope. They did not advance towards the chairs.

“We’re here to discuss the Genomorphs,” Diana said.

“The missing ones? I’ve got that well in hand. But if the League wants to assist, I won’t object. Let me call Dubbilex in, he’s helping me with the search.”

Diana and Jon looked at each other. “Tell me about the missing Genomorphs,” Jon said, entirely avoiding the question of why they were actually there.

“We’re missing almost a hundred. They aren’t getting out topside. Which means they have to be somewhere in the facility. But I’ve searched it. A lot. Either they’re being moved around…”

“Or they’re being vaporized?” Jon offered.

“Teleportation?” Diana countered.

“No sign of it. Either of them.”

“Hmm…you know, if there’s gnomes in on it, then no matter what you saw, you might not remember,” Jon pointed out as Dubbilex walked in.

“Yeah, I thought of that too. Last pass I had the Manhunter with me. No joy,” Guardian said with a grumble and a bit of a glare at Dubbilex.

“Well, that is interesting and something to look into, but it is not why we are here,” Diana said.

“Oh?” he clearly cut himself off from continuing the question, remembering Jon’s grumpiness.

“We are here because Jon pointed out that we appear to be treating the Genomorphs as slaves,” Diana turned to Dubbilex. “I understand you requested Conner free you. Is that correct?”

Dubbilex’s body language was panicked and his hands came up, prompting Jon’s hands to rise in turn. Diana pushed Jon’s hands back down. At the same time Guardian got up from behind his desk. “What are you talk—”

“Shut up,” Jon snapped, then turned back to Dubbilex. “Well? Don’t worry about him, or Cadmus. If they’re dicks about this, I’ll just shoot them. You’d be astounded how many problems it solves.”

“Jon,” Diana said, reprovingly.

Dubbilex squared his shoulders. “You hide your minds from me and mine, but ask us to trust you.”

“Yeah. If you could see into our heads it wouldn’t be trust, now would it?” Jon countered.

“You could simply ask. You clearly know what this is,” she touched the Lasso that bound her to Jon.

“Do you really want to help us?”

“Yes,” they agreed chorally.

“Why?” he asked, plaintively.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

“Because otherwise Superboy will have to bear that burden and that’s a fucking insane burden to dump on a newborn,” Jon gave Dubbilex and Guardian a very hard look.

“Freedom? Are you kidding? Where can they go?”  
  
“Yes. No. Diana has an idea,” Jon said, forced to answer the rhetorical questions and his glare at Guardian went up in heat about ten degrees.

“Yes. No. Themiscyra,” Diana answered at the same time, which was a bit difficult to decipher.

Dubbilex’s eyes widened at that suggestion. “Would they let us in?”

“I am actually an ambassador, amongst other things. I have the right to grant asylum to people escaping unjust authority. Slavery very definitely counts. It is very lucky none of you are actually male, or I would have to come up with another solution. Assuming we can get to Themiscyra, you will be safe.”

“And how exactly would you do that?” Guardian asked. “You’ll start a riot, or a military response the moment they go topside! And they are NOT slaves. Good God—”

“Well, given that you can’t find them, I assume you’ve tunneled out somewhere to hide the Genomorphs you’re helping escape?” Diana asked Dubbilex.

He nodded, drawing a furious glare from Guardian as he realized who was behind the disappearances.

“Could you get the rest of the way to the river? I can give you precise coordinates. If we can get there underground, I can have a ship waiting.”

“This is insane. I am supposed to keep the Genomorphs inside so they don’t cause harm. You want to _steal an army_. I can’t let you do that!” Guardian snapped.

“Not your call,” Jon snapped. “You’ve been a shield for enough evil already.” Diana gave him a look. Jon shrugged. “The truth makes me poetic.”

“Shield for evil? I am a hero—”

“You were. But somewhere you lost your way. I give you a choice, Guardian. Would you like to know if there are other influences still in your head? Say the word and I’ll show you who you truly are,” she said holding the Lasso up.

Guardian stared at it, body language panicked, then he dropped like a stone.

Dubbilex stared in shock while Diana and Jon moved instantly, trying to help the man as he began to convulse.

Jon stabilized his head and neck while Diana tried to figure out what had happened. But it was over before she could do much of anything.

His movements stilled. His heart was still beating and he was breathing, but his eyes were closed and he was totally unresponsive. When Jon pulled back an eyelid, the pupil was fixed and dilated and stared blankly at the ceiling. He got up while Diana continued checking on the man.

“What the hell did you do?” he asked as he advanced on Dubbilex. “What was so secret that you’d do that to him rather than let him talk—”

Dubbilex held up his hands desperately proclaiming his innocence and then his eyes lit up. Both clawed hands closed on the Lasso around Jon’s waist. “I didn’t do it. I don’t know what happened!” he said through gritted teeth as pain burned through him.

Jon stepped back and looked down at Diana. She looked up at him, “He needs a medical facility. But I’m fairly certain he’s gone.”

“Shit. And it happened right when you offered him the Lasso…”

“Indeed. I need to call in the League, this is very bad,” Diana pointed out.

“You can’t. They’ll think that we did this! Just like your friend did,” Dubbilex said, panic bubbling up.

“We can tell them you didn’t.”

“But I can’t say it wasn’t some Gnome scared of what Guardian would do or had done. My people know what I know. They know this happened and they’re close to panic. If the League, or the humans come down here, I can’t say what will happen. We know what Cadmus had planned if we rebelled. We will not go quietly to our deaths!”

“We aren’t Cadmus,” Diana countered.

“How close are you to getting to the river?” Jon interrupted.

There was a moment of silence as Dubbilex conferred, then he winced. “We’re almost there. It was going to be our escape route if things went wrong.”

Jon and Diana’s eyes met each other.

“It’ll take time. Will you keep the facility locked down until then?” Diana asked him. “No communication to the League.”

“If you order it and circumstances don’t change too badly. How long?”

“I don’t know.” She turned to Dubbilex.

“If you can have a big enough ship…and our exit point works…four hours.”

“Don’t contact anyone for six hours,” Diana ordered.

Jon nodded.

She glanced down at the Lasso and at Dubbilex. “Trust is given, as well as proven,” she said as she untied the end around her waist and tossed it to Jon. Dubbilex slowly relaxed at that.

Dubbilex led her away, but paused at the door. “There’s something in the walls of Superboy’s chamber. It’s dangerous. I don’t know much more, but that its a failed early prototype. There must be more secrets on sublevel 13. No Genomorphs were ever allowed in there.”

“Understood. Go.” He tried to say that he would take care of things here, but that really wasn’t the truth. This was a clusterfuck.

As they walked away, Jon said to their back, “I suppose you’d be offended if I made horrible threats about what would happen if they double cross you?” he asked Diana’s back.

“I can take care of myself, but I appreciate the sentiment,” she said, ushering Dubbilex along before either of them could respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here we see my solution to the problem of the Lasso and a conspiracy...
> 
> It's not a nice one, but the Light are not very nice people.
> 
> Comments are always welcome.


	15. Off the Rails

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jon plays cleanup. And gets a bigger mess than expected.

The voice of command and the mask that hid his youthful appearance, when combined with walking in beside Wonder Woman was enough to get the guards to lock the upper floors down as he ordered over the phone in Guardian’s office.

It took about half an hour for everyone (except the guards watching the elevator and the one actual medical doctor in the place) to be arrayed in the sublevel thirteen atrium, as he’d requested. It took him longer than that, as he had to hike up to the medical bay, with Guardian tossed over his shoulder while avoiding everyone else. He really wanted to take the Lasso off, but his trust that the Genomorphs were actually gone and there was nothing else here that could screw with his mind was at an all time low. Given the evidence he was carrying, that wasn’t particularly unreasonable.

The doctor was displeased, but not inclined to argue with him. Not with a patient right in front of her and a grumpy armored man in her treatment space. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for her to conclude there was nothing she could do. As far as she could tell, the man was a vegetable. His higher brain functions seemed to have simply been burned out, though she couldn’t tell if there was some sort of device, curse, telepathy, or natural cause. Jon sort of hated the fact that there were so many options. He missed home, where the answer to any problem was ‘alien bullshit’ or ‘human bullshit,’ or he had to admit in fairness, ‘ascended bullshit.’

He left her hooking Guardian up to some life support machines and monitors, but wasn’t entirely sure what the point was. Given the timing, it seemed most likely that the man had either suicided, or been killed to prevent the Lasso from being used on him. Not entirely surprising, keeping a conspiracy going in a world with such items must be incredibly difficult. Even more so than keeping one going back in his own universe. Still, he told her to close the massive door and keep the medical bay secure until the League showed up.

Jon joined them not too long after they arrived. “What’s going on?” Dr. Spence asked.

“A thousand, thousand things, constantly. The next person to ask a question will regret it,” Jon said, tapping the Lasso still looped around his belt.

“Is that—” one of the other scientists began, then swallowed the question when Jon’s glare nailed him, right through the gas mask.

“Guardian is gone. Brain dead and lying in the medical bay.” Jon let the noise build for a moment. “The Genomorphs are being removed.” There were objections, but a slashed hand silenced them. “This is a den of slavers and monsters. Convince me this place should not be torn down around you, if you can.”

There was a pause, then as one the mob of scientists descended upon him in a wave of technobabble and glasses. He listened, trying to figure out what was going on. “Less technobabble, more clarity,” he snapped. They simplified, but despite their desperate effort their projects were so elaborate and complicated that he couldn’t understand them. Wouldn’t have been able to even if they hadn’t all been speaking at once.

He listened for an endless period of time, until he finally lost his patience. Before he could snap at them, however, Dr. Spence, the senior surviving scientist raised a hand cautiously.

“If Guardian is dead, then aren’t—I mean I’m in charge, r—” she cut out the questions, just barely.

“Are you? This company has no identifiable owners. After the last incident, the League left it intact because dealing with the Genomorphs was hard. That problem has been solved. Given what you all have apparently been up to, why should this company be allowed to continue to exist? Superman clones? Created slave races—”

“That’s not what they were—” Dr. Spence began, a flush almost invisible against her dark skin.

“No? Were they paid?”

“No, but—”

“Could they leave?”

“Of course not, but—”

“Are they sapient?”

“Arguably, but—”

“Dubbilex can talk.”

“Most of them aren’t like him—”

“So, you only bred new species and a _few_ slaves. Truly, your defense is masterful. Why aren’t the Genomorphs allowed on this floor?” He considered that for a moment and belatedly decided he trusted Dubbilex enough to take the damn Lasso off. Which he did.

“You’d have to ask Desmond,” Dr. Spence argued.

“So, to summarize, none of you can explain any value in keeping you around and none of you have _any_ useful intelligence. Is that correct?”

There was an awkward shuffling at that.

“Well, then. Since we’re all staying down here for the next three hundred and fifteen minutes and you all work for Cadmus, for the moment, I have new assignments. We’re going to go over this entire floor with a fine-tooth comb, looking for anything interesting.”

There was some grumbling about that, but Jon was the only armed person. So they got to work and spent the next several hours searching the place. Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t find anything which had eluded Batman and the League, but it kept them busy and wasted time.

* * *

It was almost time for Jon to contact the League when everything went to shit. It started with one of the guards calling Jon over. Apparently they’d lost communication with the guards upstairs. When Jon tried his own Team communicator, it was also blocked. They hadn’t told him before they already sent half their number upstairs in the elevator and waited for a few minutes, which meant that if the facility was under attack as he half expected, they should be on their way back to the floor the elevator had come from right about now (unless they hadn’t tapped into the system enough to know where the elevator was coming from, but since it was reported to the computer in the security station topside that was a faint hope).

“Take cover!” Jon yelled, suiting word to action and diving back into the nearest doorway.

Most of the guards gawped at him as nothing happened for about thirty seconds, ignoring his repeated command as they tried to talk. Then the elevator opened and death poured out. The few who’d taken cover didn’t dare fire for fear of hitting their fellows. Jon had no such compunction, pouring the less-lethal electricity from his gauntlet into the black-clad figures that ran out of the elevator. There were over a dozen of them, armed with melee weapons, but they were so damn fast.

If the guards had taken cover and maintained fire on the choke-point they might have had a chance. If the ridiculous ninjas hadn’t been wearing insulated suits which protected them against the electricity Jon’s right gauntlet could pump out, then he might have delayed them enough for the guards to get reorganized when they finally realized they were actually under attack.

Since neither of those happened, the guards were quickly cut down and Jon was forced backward. Abandoning cover didn’t matter as they weren’t using ranged weapons. Their blades couldn’t penetrate his armor, but his throat and head were vulnerable. As were theirs’, as a lucky headshot demonstrated.

He hesitated for a moment. The scientists back there might be assholes and were probably hiding things, but Jon knew a cleanup team when he saw it. This was not a rescue, this was going to be a massacre. Reluctantly he raised his left hand and sent a swarm of ravenous plasma bolts down towards the elevator. The ninjas leapt aside with shocking speed, clearly forewarned of what his weapons could do. They couldn’t outrun plasma, but they’d dodged the moment they saw his left hand come up.

The elevator, however, was burnt all to hell. They weren’t getting any support that way. Or so Jon thought, until the man in the hockey mask…Sportsmaster, flipped through the flames from where he had evidently been crouching atop the elevator waiting for his goons to clear the way.

The odds had been bad before, but if he’d been willing to let some of the scientists get massacred as he picked off the assailants, there’d been a chance. That was no longer true. And Sportsmaster did not limit himself to close in weaponry, instead producing an explosive javelin. Jon fired a second set of plasma which forced the assassin to dodge and the roaring heat of which melted the javelin.

Sportsmaster glared at it and at the elevator.

“That is annoying.” He glanced down at the Lasso coiled on Jon’s hip. “But that is not. Get the package. Kill everyone. I’ll deal with the kid,” he ordered the other assassins.

Jon didn’t hesitate. He fired again, dropped a flashbang and ran. At the first intersection he dropped smoke and circled away as silently as he could sprint. Screams started coming from the other direction. This was a total disaster.

Unless the Shadows were idiots, they had more folks topside, probably disguised as the guards they’d killed up there. Which meant even if he could get back into the elevator shaft and climb the thirteen floors up to the exit, he was in trouble. Sportsmaster on his tail, after the Lasso, obviously and assassins everywhere. Which left only one way out. Down and out whatever tunnel the Genomorphs had left through. The problem was he had no clue where that was. Besides down.

Well, he could burn his way through the floor to the next level, but it wouldn’t be quiet. And he was really uncertain how long the charge in his gauntlets would hold out. Jon cursed violently (if only internally) as he stuck his head out and saw two Shadows heading down the corridor away from him. They weren’t participating in the killing, which suggested that they were after the ‘package.’ Jon considered for a moment, then went after them. It was probably the last way Sportsmaster would expect him to go.

They led him to a wall, which they put some device to, which caused it to open. One went in while the other kept watch. Little choice, Jon managed the headshot and sprinted in, scooping the device off the wall as he slid through the door, hoping it would close behind him. It did not. The other Shadow was already turned around and had a blade out, striking towards his throat. His sprint turned into a dive fairly smoothly and he slammed into the assassin’s legs, bringing them both down in a jumble. Jon managed to get up first and a kick to the head stopped the fight and maybe the other man’s life. It was hard to judge force and blows to the head were always tricky.

With that done, he pumped another shot into the downed guard and turned to look around the room. To his total lack of surprise, it contained another cloning/hibernation pod. This one had some one armed kid in it. Jon had no idea who he was supposed to be a clone of, but didn’t much care, either. The Shadows wanted him, then he didn’t want them to have him.

Sportsmaster’s approach was perfect, but Jon still caught a glimpse of movement reflected off the glass of the pod and spun. “You are persistent,” Sportsmaster noted, pulling out a rapier and a short, curved blade for his other hand.

Jon cursed mentally. The one vulnerability of the armor was to tiny piercing points. Darts, or perhaps a rapier. That was either a really good guess by Sportsmaster, or there was a leak. The weapons might have been Cheshire, or someone who’d seen something on Santa Prisca. This was something else.

“You’re the one chasing me,” he countered. Sportsmaster was between him and the exit. Not good.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you. Just beat you senseless and bring you into the light.”

“Not worried, and I know—” Sportsmaster lunged forward without warning and Jon was forced to leap back as Sportsmaster’s attack forced him away from the pod in the middle of the room and towards the back wall, despite putting up a stout defense with his armored arms and the knife in his right hand.

“Not bad, but not good enough,” Sportsmaster muttered.

“Fuck you,” Jon said and raised his left gauntlet to aim at the pod.

* * *

Sportsmaster dove away from the plasma shots, which did not destroy the pod, but instead punched through the ground underneath it, ripping a massive hole down to the floor below, sending it and Jon tumbling down again. This time he managed not to break anything, though his still sensitive ribs informed him that he was an asshole.

He fired up through the hole at Sportsmaster, who dove back out through the door as the shots ripped through open air and collapsed the ceiling above the entryway. The assassin who remained inside was definitely dead when he was crushed by collapsing rubble.

Jon moved quickly over to the pod. He was no tech, but fortunately there was a big button on the front. Lights were flickering all over the pod as most conduits had been severed. Fortunately, it had some sort of emergency backup, which wasn’t destroyed with the floor. After a moment, Jon slid his mask up, then hit the button.

The pod slid open with a whisper of escaping smoke and a blast of freezing air. The kid fell out and Jon caught him. “Kid, you able to talk? Or walk? Or run?” his attention was divided between the teenager, who was so cold Jon could feel it through his armor and his surroundings. He’d carry the teenager out before he abandoned him to the Shadows, but that wasn’t a path with a high chance of success.

The kid coughed, so at least he hadn’t killed the poor fellow. Eyes opened and stared up at his face. Jon knew he looked a fright, in the pure black armor and with his gas mask on top of his head. “Listen kid, don’t have a lot of time here, the League of Shadows is attacking. We need to move,” he carefully did not state he was with the Justice League. Superboy had been intended to replace Superman if necessary, he didn’t want to trigger any implanted commands in his fellow clone.

“The Shadows?” the kid reached for a weapon which wasn’t present. Then he noticed he was missing a hand.

“What happened?”

“Sorry, kid, but don’t know. We have to go. Can you move?”

“Of course!” He tried. Jon helped and they made it up, but the kid was swaying and almost fell over.

“Seriously, can you do this? I’ll carry you if I have to, but this is going to be hard enough.”

“How are we getting out of here?” the kid asked, pushing away from Jon and managing not to fall.

“There’s a tunnel out on the lower levels. Not sure where though. And I blew up the elevator, so to get down we’re going to need to either blow out way through a lot of floors or go down an elevator shaft. And my only rope is this creepy Lasso which you really don’t want to touch.”

“That’s Wonder Woman’s Lasso! How’d you get it?” the kid snapped, finally having gotten his feet mostly under him and took a sharp step towards Jon.

“She gave it to me. Well, left it with me. There were mind controlling monsters here, so we needed it for protection, but they’re gone now. As we should be. You know, I think there were air shafts too. That’s what Robin’s report indicated…”

“You know Robin?” the kid asked, some of his concern assuaged as he very clearly had not believed that Wonder Woman had given him her Lasso. Jon didn’t mention that the kid didn’t know Robin and just believed he did. It was clear he was a better job of indoctrination than Superboy, but then again Superboy was intended as a blunt instrument.

“Yes. Now where—” the air vent he found was sealed with a computerized lock. He considered that and Robin’s security prowess, then shot a giant hole in it. Fortunately, it wasn’t just an endless vertical shaft, instead it snaked around between levels, offering places to stop as they descended. They had to use bits of the kid’s costume to bind him to Jon’s armor as descending with one arm wasn’t feasible.

At least for the first few levels. After that, they had a long drop and had to go back-to-back as they wall-walked their way down. The kid was surprisingly strong and did a good job as they walked. “So, kid—”

“I’m not a kid!” the kid snapped, which if he believed himself an ally of Robin, Jon really should have seen coming.

“Right, right. So what should I call you?”

There was a moment of hesitation, though it may simply have been the awkwardness of talking as they descended and awkwardly placed boots on the slick metal of the air shafts. “Roy.”

“Well, Roy, this is a fantastic workout we’re doing here. I was just thinking I needed to work on my stamina.”

“Not what I want to hear while I’m,” Roy glanced down between his legs, “a long way up. Why are these lighted anyway?”

“Same reason they’re person sized?”

“Maintenance?”

“Nah, ‘bot could do that.”

“Then what?”

“Same reason we’re going down instead of up, even though it’s further.”

“Which is?”

“To let in invaders.”

“What?”

“This place is too easy to defend, except when the defenders do something _really_ stupid. I’m pretty sure this is the owners cleaning house, so they’d need another solution. As they had this place made, having it made indefensible for anyone who knows about it isn’t crazy.”

“Then shouldn’t these tunnels be full of Shadows?”

“Looks like they didn’t need it. Wonder Woman took the main guard force away and I had the remainder split watching the staff. But they’ll probably need to use the air shafts since I blew up the elevator.”

“Shouldn’t we go back up? If they have enough to go down every shaft then we’re screwed.”

“They’ve got to have guards topside.”

“We can take a Shadow or two.”

“Not while we’re climbing out of a hole.”

There was a moment of consideration.

“And not while I’m…disarmed,” Roy added.

“Good. Keep your sense of humor and we’ll be fine.”

After another ridiculously long time, Jon concluded they were probably deep enough, especially when he heard an explosion from up above where someone had dropped a bomb into the air shaft above them.

Blowing a hole in the grate was easy enough, though getting through it was a bit tricky. Especially given how hot the edges were and Roy’s lack of armor. Still, with a bit of difficult he managed to step through and tug the kid through without more than a minor burn.

They’d made it far enough down to be in the more naturalistic caves, which at least had the possibility of containing some tracks to help them find the exit. Roy was unthrilled by Jon’s plan, but proved himself a far more skilled tracker than Jon. Given that Jon relied upon Teal’c for his tracking, that wasn’t entirely surprising. Fisherman, not hunter. Though he wasn’t actually a good fisherman. At least back home. He might try fishing here…

That distraction aside, the tracks were fairly straightforward to find. Given that they were carrying everything they owned and lots of supplies, this wasn’t too surprising. Somewhat more surprising was the fact that the Genomorphs had punched a bunch of ramps between the lower levels they inhabited. Totally unsurprisingly, the skilled tracker recognized that they were not following humans.

“What are we following?”

“Remember the mind controlling monsters?”

“Yes?”

“Wonder Woman is saving them from…well…us.”

Roy pulled away, “Who are you, then?”

“Humanity, not some group. This is a long story, can we talk while we walk?”

“Fine.”

“Okay. So this is a creepy place full of creepy nerds doing creepy science shit. Cloning people and making a private race of slave soldiers. The League found out and kicked out the bosses, but couldn’t figure out what to do about everything else. Wonder Woman and I came to look into it. She decided to liberate the slaves and left me behind to hold onto the nerds until we brought in the Justice League,” Jon watched carefully, but the kid had no reaction to that. “Which I have pretty much failed at, as everyone but us is dead.” He considered Guardian and the poor doctor he’d ditched and hoped they were all right. “Hmm…guess it wasn’t that long.”

“Okaaaaay…umm…what am I doing here, then?”

“Sorry, Roy. You’re a clone, just like me and Superboy.”

“What?”

“Yep. This place clones people. You’re probably meant to replace some superhero, or something. Or maybe an experiment? Beats me. Who knows why nerds do anything they do? But don’t worry, once we get out of here, I’m sure the League can help.”

“I am not a clone. I remember my life.”

“Implanted memories. They did it to Superboy too. Created a whole identity.”

“No. That is crazy.”

“Look, once we get out of here, you can get the Martian Manhunter to dig around in your head and prove it.”

“Or you could just give me the Lasso.”

“Not going to happen.” They’d stopped. “We should keep going.”

“Give me the Lasso.”

“Sorry, Roy. No.”

“Don’t think I can handle it?”

“Don’t think I’m going to risk losing it. Have you seen Wonder Woman? If I piss her off, she can crush my head with one hand.”

There was a moment of silence at that. “You think I’d steal the Lasso of Truth?”

“I think that Sportsmaster tried and I’m not handing it to someone who’s been in cold storage with people in his head for who knows how long. Sorry. Not happening.”

Roy lunged for the Lasso, but Jon twisted away. The kid was fast, strong, had some training. But he was clearly relying on Jon underestimating him due to his missing hand and that didn’t happen. Too experienced to let pity distract him or slow his movements, Jon spun away, away, twisted and finally shoved Roy flat.

“We do not have time for this, let’s go.”

“I need to know.”

“Well, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner you can find out.”

Roy glared up at him in frustration, but despite Jon’s general impatience, he could outlast a teenager.

They kept moving. Fortunately, they did find a flashlight, since the tunnel Roy led them to was an endless stream of total blackness, while Roy lacked night-vision. And it was _long_. As in more than a mile, underground, in the dark, with Jon having to dodge _repeated_ efforts to snatch the Lasso. Roy was testing Jon’s very limited patience to its limit. 

They finally made it to a point they could see daylight, and the setting sun bouncing off the water of the Potomac. Diana had gotten away. As they reached the exit, they finally realized why they hadn’t been heavily pursued. Sportsmaster was there, waiting for them with a quartet of Shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments always welcome.


End file.
